Stranded
"Tritonio Espada!" Sasha's voice cut through the silence, all those present looking down on the chained-up newt in front of them, "You're accused of several robberies, as well as having scammed several children into assisting you in your robberies, and then using them as fall guys for your crimes."
"You do have to respect my creativity, at least!"
"We respect nothing!" James grumbled, the newt backing down as he could feel the anger in the eyes of the usually nice boy. "You trick children into doing all your dirty work, and then you backstab them the moment you don't need them anymore! You even tried to enlist us too!"
"In my defense, I didn't know you kids were the local guardsmen I heard about. And your skills are quite interesting; in fact, why-"
"Oh, shut up!" Sasha yelled again. "If you're not able to keep that mouth of yours in check, I'll fill it with a stinky sock!"
Hearing the blonde girl's threat and realizing that she would do it if he gave her an excuse, Tritonio wisely decided to shut up. Maybe, he could use this time to think of a plan to break out of prison?
"That said," the girl continued, "your skill with the words is quite good, and while the toads would be quite happy to get their hands over you, neither Wartwood nor the Valley is anymore under the Toad Army's rule. For this reason, we are willing to offer you a deal."
"Oh? A deal? Of what kind?" Tritonio gasped his own lessons and teaching resounding inside of his head. Among them, Trust no one.
"A simple one, actually." Jacob, who until then had simply stood silent and watched, grumbled. "You keep training us and the rest of Wartwood, and in exchange, you will not only earn back your freedom but also a considerable payment for your services."
"And if I refuse?"
"You'll either be forced to leave Wartwood and try to survive on your own without your sword or any of those fancy weapons of yours," Sasha grinned, remembering how many valuable weapons Tritonio had, and that they were being now used for Wartwood's defense, "or maybe…we could simply keep you locked up and leave you somewhere for the toads to find you. I'm sure they will be happy to meet you face to face."
Tritonio shivered, remembering the long list of heists he pulled off against toads in the last month. He was good at escaping them, again and again, yet he knew the moment he ended up at Toad Tower, Grime would have him executed.
Especially considering the latest rumors going around…
"Voluntary instructor? But it has always been the dream job of my life!"
"Then you accept," Sasha grinned in satisfaction. "Very well, your first lesson will be in three days henceforth. Until then…Leatherleaf will take good care of you."
"Move, you scoundrel," the old town sheriff said, the newt unable to do anything but follow his order. Oh, he could have escaped, either now or back in his cell (he had at least twenty-two ways to break out he managed to discover and implement in his life), but if he did, and they captured him, the deal would have been off. Plus, the other girl, the one with glowing blue eyes and hair was too scary for him to face again…
"I still cannot believe we fell for his lies," James grumbled, once Tritonio was no longer in sight. "A final test involving a fake robbery on a train with a fake priceless ruby which turns out to be quite REAL."
"You know what still offends me the most?" Jacob looked at his bro, "He is basically parodying one of my favorite fantasy characters, Inigo Montoya."
"Hey, we managed to escape, didn't we?" Sasha tried to cheer both boys up, "My only regret was that I couldn't take a photo of his expression when Anne rushed behind him in superpowered mode. That was at that moment he knew he frogged up."
"By the way, do you know where Anne and the others are? When we woke up this morning, they had left the farm already."
"Marbles is with Maddie, Jacob." The girl replied immediately, "They are trying some new magic that I couldn't understand. As for Boonchuy and your cousin…"
(…)
"Secure those boxes well, Amelia," Anne said, carrying out more pre-made takeaway dishes for Stumpy's home delivery service. "The last thing we need is for some people left with nothing to eat because their lunch ended up smashed on the ground."
"Anne, please!" The younger girl replied with a snarl, "Akitsu and I have been flying together ever since she grew her wings! We have enough experience as it is!" Before adding with a growl "Plus, this is just home delivery..."
"Just home delivery? Amelia, do you have any idea how difficult it can be?"
"Girls, please, there is no use quarreling." Stumpy walked out of his diner. "And you should be more respectful of Anne's words: she just wants you to be wary of what you're doing. Remember, if you end up dropping some boxes, we might not have enough time to redo them!"
"Ok, ok! Sorry Mr. Stumpy." Amelia sighed, realizing that both he and Anne had a point. "Akitsu, are you still feeling ok? Is that too heavy for you?"
"Bru-brum-bra!" the large dragonfly replied, annoyed (but not particularly) at being used as a delivery pony. Plus, those ropes they were using to secure the box here were pinching on her skin a bit.
"Why don't you simply carry one or just a few and then you return here?" Anne suggested, "Akitsu wouldn't be bothered, and it would weigh less on her." And I'd feel safer rather than letting you carry all of them at once and possibly destroy the whole batch together.
"Thank you for the suggestion, but no. Akitsu and I can deal with it," Amelia replied, slowly getting on Akitsu's back, "Moreover, the place we are supposed to deliver them is far away from here but close to each other. It would be faster to go directly from one to another, rather than return here every time."
"Ok, kiddo." Stumpy walked toward her, the giant dragonfly looking with a puzzled look at the places where his hands were supposed to be. "Just try to stay safe and don't take useless risks. Remember that many people are counting on you, today."
"Of course!" Amelia replied with a note of pride, "And you remember that every box I deliver is two coppers."
"You'll get your pay when you return. Now go!"
"Ok! Anne, I'll probably be away till late, tell the others to have lunch without me!"
"Sure thing, Amelì!"
Akitsu buzzed and roared, her wings flapping faster and faster as she started to generate enough power to raise herself from the ground, despite the weight of Amelia and the delivery boxes on its back. Anne and Stumpy stood there, watching as the large bug slowly got up in the air and flew away, toward the first destination and customer of the day.
"I still cannot believe it," Stumpy said with a smile, looking as Akitsu became smaller and smaller on the horizon. "A real White Skies Dragonfly. If someone said to me that such creatures existed for real, two months ago, I would have never believed him. Of course, nor would I have believed if they said that I would be able to find joy once again in my work, or that someone would have helped me bring success back to my restaurant."
"Hey, you hired me." Anne chuckled, "I was just helping my employer and protecting my workplace."
"And now, I also have a way to deliver lunch boxes for those who can't come to my diner directly every day. Is this something your parents do in your world too?"
"Yes, many times already. Of course, usually, home delivery is not made through a giant dragonfly."
"Well, let's hope your friend remembered to bring a map with her. Now come, we must finish the preparations for today."
"Sure thing, boss!"
(…)
"There you go!" Maddie said, confirming the new properties of the enchantment in front of her, "The new Light Beam spell is ready!"
"I've already noted down the recipe and the method to prepare it," Marcy said, adding the final snippets and sketches to her journal. "Should we need to prepare it again, we'll have everything ready."
"Next, how about some spell to escape imprisonment?" Maddie looked back at her best friend, student, and magic helper, "That would have been useful when Tritonio tried to trap your friends and make them take the fall for his crime."
"Don't make me think about it!" The human girl replied, looking down. "I still feel guilty for believing his lies in such a stupid way!"
"Don't blame yourself, kid." Farine, Maddie's father, and Marcy's employer, said as he walked in. "The world is filled with kind-faced scoundrels who act like they're your best friends as long as they need you but will be all too happy to betray you once they're able to. I too have met people like that in my youth."
"But…he looked so kind and friendly!"
"They all look kind and friendly at first," Farine continued, as he kept doing his business. "They laugh at your jokes, they act like you've been friends since the day you were born, so you don't see them ensnare you toward them, pull them from the people who are your real friends, let yourself reveal your secret and issues as they act as your confidant. Until the time when you can see the cruelty behind their smiles, when they reveal how much you are under their control and that you cannot disobey them, no matter how angry or scared you are. Until the time they reveal to you that they were playing you the whole time, and they never saw you as anything more than a pawn for their plans. Until they take the secrets you revealed to them, and expose them to the world for their own gain and betray all the thrust you have put in them!"
"Dad, please!" Maddie intervened, noticing the expression Marcy had got on her face, "You're making her feel bad."
"I-I'm sorry kids," Farine apologized, the anger he still felt for the people who had scammed him in the past dissolving as soon as he saw the look in Marcy's eyes, guilt taking over his mind. "I guess I'll go now."
"Marcy," Maddie hurried to speak as soon as her father had left the room, "don't take the words of my dad so seriously. He's still feeling angry for a couple of scams he ended up falling for in his youth, and he never got over them. Tritonio's act was quite realistic, and he was a professional: you cannot blame yourself for falling for it just as your friends."
"I know, and it's not the reason why I'm feeling gloomy." Marcy replied, her eyes filled with gloom, "But rather… about what your father said about exposing secrets."
"Marcy, you are talking about…that "situation" of yours?"
Marcy nodded, thinking back at the Box and how everything started. The book she found at the library, the argument she had with her parents, the thrift shop…how she was the reason why Anne and all her friends were now currently trapped in Amphibia. The reason why Anne was taken away from her family on the day of her birthday.
"I don't want to keep lying to my friends." Marcy wept, a single tear leaking over the badge Lavender, Rosemary, and Ginger had gifted to her, "It pains me to keep hiding this from them, but I cannot reveal the truth: they'd hate me for the rest of my life!"
"They wouldn't." Maddie tried to cheer her up, "I mean, what you did was wrong, but-"
"There is no excuse for what I did!" Marcy felt the weight of her guilt crush on her chest. "I believed I was doing a good thing, bringing them with me in some kind of fantasy world where we could be happy and together forever, but now…now I wish I'd never found that Box."
"Marcy Regina Wu Flour," Maddie said, grabbing the human's face and turning it toward her, so each of their eyes were now in front of each other. "I understand how you are feeling, yet, while your actions were at fault, your intentions were not. I mean, you told me that you did that because you didn't want to be separated by your friends, right? True, the way you handled it…it was a total disaster, I won't lie, but you had a logic behind it. This is what makes you better than people like Tritonio."
"How?" The human replied, Maddie internally smirking as she realized her explanation had succeeded in distracting her from her own sadness.
"Because Tritonio knew that what he was doing was bad, but he kept doing that for his own profit; you, on the other hand, didn't realize the downside of what you did until later, and when you did, you immediately went on finding a solution. And that's the key on how to solve the issue. Do you know what I do when I must tell something bad to my little sisters?"
"Uh, no?" Marcy said, genuinely bereft of ideas. Having been raised an only child, like Anne, she didn't have experience dealing with younger siblings, before Amphibia.
"I try to add good news, or something that they would see as good news, so the two things even out."
"That's…actually a good strategy," Marcy mused, feeling her optimism resurge. "But what kind of good news could even that?"
"What if we could find out something more about the Box?" Maddie suggested, "I mean, you're the smartest person I've ever met, and I'm the most expert frog in magic. We did enough magic already, so…what would you say about using the rest of the day trying to understand the box a little better?"
"I like it!" Marcy said, a new smile flourishing on her lips, as happiness once again bloomed in her brain. "We'd need to have to get it first, at the Farm. Wanna go now?"
"Sure! Lead the way, Regina."
"Don't call me Regina!" Marcy begged, putting a hand on her forehead. "I hate my middle name!"
"I know," Maddie chuckled, sticking her tongue "Your friends told me about it!"
"Come here!"
"I'm home!" Marcy announced, Maddie walking just behind her, "Someone here?"
Around them, the house stood silently, no reply coming from any of the other rooms.
"Looks like no one's here at the moment," The dark-haired girl said, feeling a little more relaxed about the situation, "Good, less risk of getting caught."
"Would your friends have issues seeing us with the Box?"
"Some would, Maddie." Marcy sighed, "I guess I cannot blame them: the Box is what allowed us to arrive on this world, and thus, our best chance to find the way back. They wouldn't be angry, but surely, they would ask questions…some of which, I'm not sure I could answer to"
"Then let's not waste time: where do you keep it?"
"In the basement, in Anna-Banana's backpack."
The two girls raised the hatch and walked down, in the small underground room that ever since their arrival, had been the six human's temporary quarters. As she walked nearby her bunk bed, Marcy's gaze focused on a small picture attached to the wall, depicting herself with Sasha and Anne. A happy memory of a happy day, when they promised to be friends and stay together forever.
Wasn't that the reason why you kidnapped them? Why did you decide to take them with you without even asking for their permission?
Pushing away the negative thoughts, Marcy sat down on the mattress, grabbing Anne's backpack, and starting to search through it.
"You know, I'm curious about how the Box works as well." Maddie confessed with a thoughtful expression, "I've never seen something like that before, and yet it clearly shows Amphibian themes. Maybe…a relic of the past?"
"That would be so cool!" Marcy squeaked, keeping searching, "An ancient artifact of some lost-oh." She stopped, as she realized that her fingers were not finding the Box's surface. She checked again, and again, now growing nervous as she realized she couldn't find the item she was looking for.
"Marcy? Everything ok?"
"I…I can't find the Box."
(…)
"Two Kaeng Lueang and a Tom Yum Goong at table five!"
"Understood," Stumpy nodded, moving among the kitchen as he struggled to keep watch and take care of every order. Even if the situation had somewhat stabilized since the first days, and the local was no more as full as it was, the renovation (and Duckweed's positive review) had contributed to form a sizable number of regular customers, coming to his diner to eat every once a while. As much as this helped to make Stumpy happy, the customers were now many, and he was alone in the kitchen.
"I'm still feeling a bit apprehensive for Amelia," Anne said, stopping for a second to catch her own breath. "I mean, she's doing a lot of deliveries, and she's all alone. I would feel safer if she were to return here at least once a while."
"You should put more trust in your friend." Stumpy replied, checking the degree of cooking of some dishes, "She may be a little stubborn, I'll concede that; but unless her pride doesn't start to cloud her ability, she should be fine. And she's not alone: she has her giant Dragonfly to watch over her."
"I know, I know," Anne grumbled, thinking back to the time she took some unknown critter under her wing, and that turned out to be some kind of giant predatory moth who almost feasted on Hop Pop and his family. Somehow, inside, she still felt jealousy for everything that happened with Domino II, and how Akitsu turned out to be the complete opposite. "Still, I can't help but feel nervous."
"Hey, Anne!" A voice called, the human girl turning as she recognized it.
"Sprig, guys!" Anne smiled, walking toward her found family with newfound happiness. "You're here for lunch?"
"Yup," Hop Pop smiled, showing off a small bag full of copper coins, "Today we had a good day of sales at the market, and we wanted to celebrate."
"That's good news!" Anne smirked, leading them to a still-empty table. "I suppose those zucchinis are quite popular."
"It's not just the zucchini," Hop Pop revealed, "it's everything else as well! If this keeps going, soon we would be able to expand our stand like Marcy once suggested."
"I can't believe this is happening," Sprig nodded. "We were barely making returns before you arrived, and now we're getting better off!"
"This is a very good day indeed!" Anne gleamed. "And there is absolutely nothing that could happen to ruin it!"
"Anne!" A voice called, and two figures rushed inside the building as well, some frog looking at them with curiosity.
"Marcy, Maddie!" Anne smiled, recognizing them. "Are you here for lunch as well? Want to sit with Hop Pop and the others, or do you prefer to stay on your own?"
"We're not here for lunch, Anna-Banana." Marcy breathed heavily, once she was able to speak again, "We…we need to ask you…where is the Box?"
"The Box?" Anne raised an eyebrow, having a bad feeling. "You mean-"
"The one we showed them that day," Marcy nodded, being as explicit as possible. "That one. Do you have it?"
"No, why should I have it with me? I mean, I was keeping it for today, but I didn't want to bring it to work, so I left it at the farm. In the usual place."
"You mean in your backpack?" Marcy said, her voice suddenly sounding more and more panicked.
"Huh, yeah? What's wrong?"
Marcy twitched, feeling like all her vitality had suddenly been drained from her body, her eyes widening.
"I…I think the Box has disappeared."
And now Anne felt the dread grip on her heart too.
(…)
"The Music Box is what?!" Sasha roared. Her hands in her hair, shock and horror all over her face.
"Gone," Anne repeated with a shell-shocked expression, Marcy looking down as she found herself unable to watch. "When Marcy told me, I immediately rushed back to the farm to check, hoping for it to be a misunderstanding. But when I checked my backpack herself…the Music Box was gone."
"H-how could this have happened?" Jacob gasped in desperation, still hoping inside for it to be a bad prank.
"We don't know," Marcy replied. "Maddie and I had an idea about a possible trail that could have led us to our way back home, so we wanted to check the Box. But we couldn't find it, so we assumed Anne had brought it with her-"
"Why would I bring it with me?!" Anne yelled, not realizing (or not caring) about the volume. "The Box was the only way that we could use to return home, the only thing that could lead back to Earth, and now…" she fell on her knees, the reality of the situation finally settling on her, "and now it's gone."
All around her, the humans looked devastated, horror spreading over their faces. If the box was lost, then the only hope they had to find a way to return home was gone. And that meant…
…we're trapped here, Sasha thought in dread, the chill that ran through her veins and body colder than snow on Hyber Day.
Amphibia, all things considered, was not a bad place to visit. The first few days had been difficult, it was true, but with time she had managed to adapt. But, to live here forever? To be the strange, freakshow-like creatures in a world populated by sentient amphibians? Saying goodbye to ice cream, hamburgers, malls, magazines, Wi-Fi? Saying goodbye to everything she had grown up with? Eat insects for the rest of her days?
Behind her, in a frightened tone, James said something under his breath, and Sasha seemed to hear the name "Robinson Crusoe." She did not want to ask him, for fear of being right, but something was clear. They were in a much worse situation than Robinson had ever been: at least he had remained in his own world!
"M-Maybe it's not lost," Anne said, trying to convince herself more than the others, "Maybe it's just somewhere else on the farm! We just need to find it!"
Marcy listened, but she knew that was a hollow hope: ever since they had shown the Box to them, Anne had been quite straightforward with the old frog, reminding him to never move the Music Box from its intended place. The chance of the Box being somewhere else on the farm, thus, was quite slim.
Yet, she didn't dare to say it to her: maybe because letting her friends delude herself was the kindest of the poisons.
"If that's so, can I help you?" James mused, somewhat struggling to hold himself on this last hope spot. "I mean, if we look in two, we could be surer!"
Jacob said nothing, sitting in despair. He first thought about the possibility of growing old and dying in Amphibia, then he thought about the possibility of not growing old and still dying in Amphibia. In this world, there were a lot more dangers than in Los Angeles and fewer methods to fix something that was broken. He thought back to all the dangers he and the others had faced in these months: if they were trapped here forever, would he grow accustomed to them as well?
Then, another shock hit him as he realized that Amelia was still away, and thus, she didn't know about the missing Box. When she returned, he would have to tell her, but…would he be able to do it? And how would his cousin react? Would she cry when he would tell her that they were stuck here forever? Would she be angry, accusing him of the fact? Or maybe, would she not be too distressed by the event? Among them, she was the one who seemed to enjoy Amphibia the most…would she be happy at the idea of never having to return home?
Home, that word cut through him like a slice of Sasha's pink sword. He felt a pain in his chest, his heart starting to beat faster and faster, as memories of his dad and mom flashed in front of his eyes. What did they think, the day he and Amelia disappeared? Did they call the police, did they put signs promising rewards? Were they at home, right now, still hoping for their return?
But what if they would have never been able to return?
"Let's coordinate our effort." Anne announced, "James and I will look inside-"
"I'll look with you too!" Sasha nodded; anger barely contained within her eyes. "The house is big; you need an additional pair of eyes!"
"I'll check around it, then," Jacob added, still feeling shaken. "I mean, maybe some animal found it, and took it to its nest."
"And I'll try to look around for hints," Marcy struggled to come up with a smile. "I'm sure we will find it before sunset."
"Yeah, we just need to look out for it, don't we?"
"Oh, I am sure of that."
Beyond all those words of bravado, however, no one believed them for real, and yet they tried to look as assured and confident as they could, hoping for their words to become truth and for the Box to be found once again.
Because of the alternative to it, no one dared to think about it.
"Marcy!" Maddie said, carrying her sisters, "Are you ok?"
"I…I think so?" The human girl, still feeling unable to get up from the trunk she was currently sitting on, negative thoughts flocking around her like hungry sharks around a raft filled with castaways. "Oh, hello Lavender; hello, Rosemary; hello, Ginger."
"Marcy!" Rosemary jumped on her lap. "Is it true what Maddie told us? You lost a box and now you cannot go home ever again?"
"Rosemary!" Maddie scolded her younger sister and her brutal, tactless question.
"It's ok, Maddie," Marcy said, and now the frogs realized she was weeping. "Yes, what you heard it's true. That Box was how we ended up in this world, and our only hope to find a way back. And since it's disappeared, we are now trapped here."
If this had happened earlier, Marcy probably wouldn't have felt this devastated. If the Box had been lost at their arrival, or during one of their first days after Hop Pop took them under his care and gave them a place to stay, she probably wouldn't feel as bad as she was feeling right now.
Because if the Box was lost by then, she wouldn't have realized the pain its disappearance had brought on her friends.
Bring your friends with you to another world, to be together forever and have a life filled with adventures, with the two people you like the most. That was the plan that panic and desperation pushed her to commit, when she sent Sasha the Box's photo, fully knowing that she would manipulate Anne into getting it. She didn't know the Box was really magic, nor that it would actually work, but in the end…it didn't matter. It worked, and now she and her friends were in another world, of magic and strange creatures, where they would be forced to live the rest of their lives together, nothing and no one to divide them ever again, an adventure every day.
Her wish had come true. Yet, the dark-haired nerd didn't feel joyful, or ecstatic; rather, she felt empty.
"Marcy," Maddie walked to her right, her hand touching her side. "Is there…anything I can do? You want a small snack to eat?"
"I'm not hungry."
She has got everything she wished for.
"Would you prefer something to drink?" Rosemary suggested.
"I'm not thirsty."
And she paid for it with her friend's feelings and safety.
"Do you want to do something together?"
"I'm not bored."
For the first time in her life, the hyperactive girl couldn't feel the drive for anything.
"Maybe you want to lie down a bit?"
"I'm not tired."
She couldn't think of anything. She didn't feel anything.
"Marcy," Maddie grabbed her and violently shook her, trying to get a reaction, "What do you want?"
"Nothing," The human said, her eyes still looking afar, her cheerful and optimistic personality nowhere to be seen, as images of a possible future flashed before her…
(…)
"Those hedgehogs will never bother you again," a young adult Marcy said, looking at the small crowd of frogs in front of her. "You're safe."
Ten years had passed since the time he and her friends had arrived in Amphibia, and like the others, she had now fully embraced her life in the new world. Armed with her crossbow and magic spells, she acted as a ranger, protecting innocent people and villages from ferocious wildlife and bandits.
She was now wearing a long, green dress, somewhat a mix between her former ranger uniform and a mage's cowl, resembling Jadebloom's uniform; her black hair, once short, now grew abundantly on her back, gathered on a braid with a green butterfly brooch tying them together; the pendant that the Moss man gifted her a long time ago around her neck; a belt filled with bags each containing a spell on her waist; a new, upgraded version of her crossbow tied to her right arm.
The teenager Marcy would have been ecstatic seeing this grown-up version of herself, but after ten years spent on Amphibia, the luxuries of Earth now an almost-forgotten memory of a world so far that it looked like a mirage now, she no longer found enthusiasm in her life.
She missed Red Velvet cupcakes, she missed her Nintendo, she missed the possibility of watching new anime on a phone, to have a hot shower, to eat something whose ingredients weren't 99% bugs.
But most of all, she missed her parents.
"Thank you for helping us once again, Ranger Marcy." The town's leader said, "The harvesting was very poor this year, but Newtopia keeps increasing our taxes. We cannot afford mercenaries to protect us like we used to do."
Two young tadpoles, who had just grown their feet, walked to her side and silently thanked her. Marcy smiled, but every time she saw happy families, she felt a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.
The memory of the last words she had said to her parents, before ending up in Amphibia.
"Marcy." A gruff voice called from behind, the ranger recognizing it instantly.
"Jacob!" She turned around, meeting her fellow. Like herself, Jacob had long foregone his Earth clothes, opting for something more practical and useful in the monster-ridden world of Amphibia: he was dressed in full heavy armor, with large pauldrons on both sides, a large helmet covering all his head except his face, a strong war hammer on his back.
"Sasha sent me to collect you: Anne went missing again."
"Oh, no!" Marcy gasped, realizing the implication. Of the six of them, Anne was the only one who still hadn't given up on finding a way back home, exploring forgotten ruins, and searching for relics that, according to her, would allow them to return to Earth. But every time, they turned out to be scams, or not aimed to work the way she wanted.
"Yeah; this time, she's going to some place called Leavesville, swearing like always that this time we'll be able to return home."
"She still hasn't given up, huh?" Marcy tried to spin it in a positive way. There were days she really hated herself for having never told them the truth.
"Marcy, this is not healthy. Even Sasha has accepted the truth, that we can't go home ever again. What Anne is feeling is…obsession. I'm sorry, but we cannot allow her to continue this madness."
"But what about the others?"
"Amelia left for the Temple; she is taking an apprentice. James is busy and can't leave the Stars Tower yet. They cannot join us."
"I see," Marcy grimaced, realizing she has no other option left. "Very well, let's move."
(…)
She knew Anne missed her parents; she knew that she would do anything to find them ever again. Would her desire drive her friend to madness? Would anything she could do restore the smile on her friend's face?
Mom, Dad, Marcy thought in sadness, I told you that you were ruining my life; but in the end, I was the one to ruin all my friend's life…
Come on, come on, Jacob silently prayed, as he kept moving stuff all around the house, hoping to find the Box somewhere he hadn't looked at yet, let me find it. I'll never prank anyone ever again; I'll be the model student my teachers always wanted me to be. I'll become the son my parents dreamed of; I'll be the best cousin Amelia could ever dream of! Just let me find it!
Yet, no one was listening to his prayer, or if someone did, didn't care as he kept looking around, his hands moving frames, shifting objects, pushing furniture as he kept looking around, still hoping to see the shiny lid of the box and allow his heart to rest.
Hoping for a chance to make things right.
I'll do every chore my parents will ask me to do, the boy kept saying in his head, hoping for a miracle, I'll never again skip a day of school. I'll study every day, no matter what. I'll always be courteous and polite with my teacher, and I'll never make fun of them ever again. I'll never do a prank for as long as I live, but please, let me find the Box!
As he kept searching, however, whatever hope he had left quickly began to wither, the boy realizing he was running out of unsearched areas where the Box might have ended.
"Hey, Jacob!" Hop Pop said, walking it just to witness his house in a tip. "What's this mess?"
"I'm looking for the Box, Hop Pop," The boy replied with a hurried tone, without even turning around nor stopping his research, "I'll put everything back after I found it."
"You could at least leave a clear passage for everyone else to move," the old frog grumbled, noticing how moving inside had become hazardous, "Besides, I did warn you that it would get stolen for sure. If you trusted me in the first place, as I suggested, I could have reached out for some frogs I knew and see if they knew about that music chest of yours."
"Box," Jacob replied, his voice turning tense. "It was a music box! Or rather, it was…"
"Jacob?" Hop Pop raised an eyebrow, noticing the boy's body growing tense, as it struggled to contain his emotions, "Are you ok?"
"No, Hop Pop, I'm not ok. I'm not okay at all!" The boy suddenly yelled, scaring the old frog and making him take a couple of steps backward. "That box was the best lead we had on how to get back in our world, maybe the only lead we ever had! And now we have lost it! We may have lost forever the only hope we had to get back to our homes, to see our families again, to, to…"
The boy stopped, falling on his knees as Hop Pop realized he had said the wrong thing right at the worst moment, as he walked toward the human, feeling ashamed of his previous coldness.
"Jacob-"
"Sorry, Hop Pop. I know it's not your fault; actually, you were right. If we did what you kept telling us to do in the first place and gave the box to you so your contacts could help us, we wouldn't have lost it in the first place. We wouldn't have ended up trapped in this world…forever."
Hop Pop said nothing, as the boy shrugged, urging himself to suppress the tears in his eyes, her mind starting to conjure a flash-forward of his and his friend's new life in Amphibia…
(…)
"Warchief," one of the youngest frog cadets said, looking at the looming figure among them. In response, the being in armor, a being like no one had ever seen in Amphibia, turned around, showing his face scorched and full of scars, each wound the memory of the endless battles he had fought in the past ten years.
"Mudfoot," Jacob said, looking at him with an inquisitive look, "What's happening?"
"You have a visitor. The Sensei of the Valley Dojo."
The human almost gasped, as he realized who it was. Smiling, he gave a sign to the frog to move and let his guest inside. It didn't take long for his guesses to be confirmed: a tall, slender figure, an old cone hat on her head, a long sword on her back, and a pink poncho covering the upper side of her body.
One of the few creatures in Amphibia, along with him, who had arrived from another world ten years ago.
"Amelia," Jacob smirked, showing off the gap he now had in his teeth, "It's been a long time since I saw you."
"Two years, cousin. How's life as the Warchief going on?"
"Please, I started to hate unnecessary violence years ago. My job nowadays is just to act as judge and quell any dispute and assure the people who put their faith in me have enough food to get by."
"I see. You've changed so much since the unruly boy of the past, I'm sure Mom and Dad would be proud of what you're doing."
"I…suppose they would?" Jacob smirked bitterly, as sad nostalgia for his birth planet and his parents started to haunt him once again. "What about you? I guess the old me would have never believed you could be a martial arts master like the ones in the anime you liked to watch."
"As the old saying goes, either you learn to swim, or you're forced to drown." The other human replied, "Though I miss the old luxuries we used to consider mundane when we were going to school. Did you manage to replicate the hamburgers?"
"Not yet. But be sure that as soon as I will, I'll make sure to warn you."
"I guess I can appreciate your kindness. Oh, do you have info about…the others?"
"I do have some news, but I cannot assure you how reliable they are," the boy who had become a man replied, scratching his left eye. "James is still at the Star Tower, teaching about the nature and mysteries of the cosmos to any frog willing to go and listen to his rambles; Sasha has taken over the Lizards Mountain, and brought Ivy and the rest of her family with her, Marcy is still traveling around, looking for new powerful magics to learn-"
"And what about Anne?" Amelia asked, with a worried expression, "Did she-"
"She's fine," Jacob replied, trying to reassure his cousin. "After Stumpy retired, she took over the diner, and she kept expanding it. Last rumors I heard; she was going to turn it into a franchise."
"All this time lost until now," She smirked, switching back to her "old sage master" personality she had developed in the last years, "We spent so much time quarreling, and only after we lost any hope to go back home, we started to grow and become better persons. Sometimes, I wish we could have just one last chance to go back to Earth and make amends for our past mistakes. But, as Marcy used to say, second chances don't come cheap."
(…)
"Second chances don't come cheap…" The boy repeated, the last flicker of hope in him twitching, desperate not to die.
"Huh, Jacob?" Hop Pop moved forward, noticing the boy looking forward with an absent look. "If you want to check, there's another room in the back of the farm, where the box might have ended up. I mean, there is still hope, at least."
"Indeed!" The boy jumped back on his feet, apparently rejuvenated once the hope in his heart gained new life, determination flowing back into his body "Where's the room?"
"In the back of the house. We haven't been using it for a while, but-" The frog stopped as he saw Jacob run away without even waiting for him to finish.
"-you surely need not to lose hope."
"Frog! Frog!" Sasha yelled, cutting off stump after stump into firewood, the ax firmly in her hands, her eyes sore with tears. Since Anne kicked her out of the house (due to her being too angry to search properly), she had decided to try and vent some of her emotions by chopping wood, but no matter how much wood she cut, no matter how her hand started to hurt, she felt even worse with any passing minute.
However, this time she had a good frogging reason to be angry.
The Box, the thing that brought them into this world, was lost. And that meant that any hope they had to go return home, was now gone. Possibly forever.
If she was the only one in this situation, maybe Sasha wouldn't have felt this bad. Contrarily to Anne or Marcy, she didn't have a family looking for her back home. She doubted Amanda would even be bothered by her sudden disappearance, too happy now that she has only her golden, perfect older sister Esther to show off. And her father…he left her long before she disappeared from Earth. And she had a proper family now, in Amphibia: Ivy, her adoptive younger sister; Felicia, her employer and adoptive mother; and Sylvia, the cool old frog that Sasha secretly wished had been her grandmother since birth.
But she wasn't the only one trapped in this world. Her friends were here too. And all of them had loving, protective families that were probably devastated ever since they disappeared.
Sasha felt new anger rise through her blood. She was angry at herself, for causing all of this. She was angry, for forcing Anne to steal the Box that ended up bringing all of them here. She was angry, for everything her friends had been forced to endure until now. But above all, she was angry because there was nothing she could do to turn the whole situation around.
Even before her change of heart, Sasha hated being powerless. Being forced to do nothing but watch as things went wrong around her. How she was forced to witness the downfall of her parents' marriage, their family growing apart as her father abandoned her and her sister, with her mother taking a new boyfriend and neglecting her. Why couldn't she control at least one thing in her life? Why could she-
-isn't' this the reason why you ended up betraying Anne and Marcy in the first place? A sardonic, mocking voice called out. You were so afraid to lose your friends, just like you lost your family, that you ended up wanting to control everything they did, and you ended up suffocating them, twisting your friendship into something toxic. You were so afraid to be alone, that you ended up making your friend suffer, and you ended up fulfilling the same fear you tried so hard to avoid.
Sasha stopped, her eyes widening, the ax falling from her hands and onto the ground, as a horrible, awful realization hit her. Had she hurt her friends once again, trying to protect them? Was the best version of herself, just the old self all along?
Was this all she could do; hurt the people she cared about the most?
(…)
"Glory to the Red Queen!" A crowd of frogs and toads announced, as Sasha walked into the room. Gone was her slender build as the captain of the cheerleaders. The human girl now showed a muscular, toned body with several scars on it, one missing eye covered by an eyepatch in the place where the claws of a heron had ripped off a chunk of her hair.
"Sasha!" Ivy ran toward her, her various preceptors fruitlessly trying to stop her as she went to hug her older adoptive sister, her now fiery mane of red hair bringing a welcome feeling to the human as she once again remembered, that she was home.
"Ivy," the aforementioned Red Queen said. "Did you miss me?"
"Of course, I missed you!" The frog replied with a pouting expression, "Do you have idea how many etiquette lessons I have to endure on a daily basis, while you were having fun on the battlefield. Why can't I go with you?"
"I wasn't going to funny places, Ivy. There is a war ongoing, have you forgotten it? And war is not a place for someone like you to go. Plus, Felicia would skin me alive if I ever brought the Princess with me."
"Sashaaa!" Ivy protested once again, "Don't call me like that. Just because my sister is the Queen, that doesn't make me a princess."
"Actually, it does, your Highness." One of the preceptors said, earning a raspberry from Ivy.
"See? Everyone is treating me snotty now, and it's your fault!"
"Hey, how about this? We're going sparring tomorrow morning, and if you get better, I'll bring you on my next trip!"
"Yay!"
"By the way, why are you here today? Didn't you have a date with Sprig?"
"I did." Ivy said, her eyes turning gloomy, "But he had to cancel it at the last minute for…Anne."
As soon as she heard that name, Sasha felt all of her strength leave her body, the guilt of the past once again weighing on her shoulders. "Why? Last time I heard, she took over the former Stumpy's."
"And she keeps spending everything she earns paying scammers for expeditions looking for a way to get back home. Sprig is very worried for her."
"Ivy, she just wants to find a way to return from her parents."
"I know, Sasha," Felicia said, walking into the room in her dignitary clothes. "But hers is no longer hope. Her is an obsession."
In one of the remaining rooms, Anne and James were looking around, still hoping to find the Box. However, while Anne was looking around with steady, determined movements, James was barely looking at all, almost as if he already knew that any hope was lost.
"Found anything?" Anne asked.
"Nothing, nothing at all." The British boy replied in a monotone, depressed voice. "The Box isn't here."
"James, how can you say that?" Anne called him out. "You're not even looking properly!"
"Because there is no need to!" The boy yelled back, all the sadness and melancholy that were bottled up in his body now flooding in his voice. "You don't realize it? The Box is lost! Our only hope to go back home is lost! No matter what we do, we can't go back home ever again. And that means that we won't ever see our parents, ever again! No matter how much you look-"
"James!" Anne slapped him, stopping his rant and grabbing him by the shoulders, her eyes filled with tears as well "Don't you ever dare to say such a thing! I know that the whole situation looks bleak, but as long as there is life, there is hope!"
"You-you think so, Anne?" James asked looking at her, his depression-filled heart looking for hopefulness. "You still think there is hope?"
"By all means." Anne nodded, refusing to even consider the idea of never again seeing her parents. "The box is not destroyed, just lost, and until we have proof that it was destroyed, we'll keep looking for it. If the box is no more, we'll look for a replacement. And we'll keep looking until we find a way back to Earth."
"And you're willing to spend the rest of your life looking for a replacement for the Box? No matter what?"
"If an old English politician could rally his whole island to resist against the apparently unstoppable war machine of the enemy when every other nation has fallen and they alone stand against tyranny, I'm sure we can keep looking around and not yield as long as there is hope. For hope's light…burns bright as the lone star in the darkest of the nights."
Hearing Anne's comparison between hope and stars, James couldn't help but smile, realizing how appropriate it was. As the stars helped ancient navigators to travel among the sea, so hope would lead them to new possibilities and paths.
"I guess you're right. Plus, we don't know if the Box was irreplaceable or not. Maybe, wherever it came from, they are worth a dime a dozen."
Plus, Anne added in her mind, no one says that life in Amphibia might be so bad after all…
(…)
"Guys, guys!" a 23-years old Anne announced, her long, bushy hair now held in a ponytail. "Lunch is ready! Get here soon, or I'm not giving you seconds!"
The sound of several feet running announced the arrival of her friends, both humans and Amphibians. Like her, all the humans had changed their appearances from the young teenagers that ended up stranded in Amphibia ten years ago. To her left, sat Marcy, the cute, lovable nerd now showing waist-length hair and had a headband made of flowers on her forehead; to her right, it was Sasha, the former queen be now having short hair with shorter bangs, a jewel made of red seashells at her neck. On the opposite side sat Jacob, now a grown-up young man with a faux-hawk hairstyle, Amelia at his right, her hair collected in a bun, while James at his left now spotted a side-parted style.
"Sorry, Anna-Bana," Marcy was the first to apologize, still chuckling nervously as she used to do when she was thirteen. "I was drawing a new painting of the giant lily pads, and I lost track of time."
"Ranger, wizard, diplomat, peacekeeper and now even an artist," Hop Pop smirked, happy to see his kids grow into beautiful people with his own eyes. "I still wonder why you haven't found someone yet."
"Hey, you already have someone who got married under this roof." Sasha chuckled, dressed in a diplomat dress, "By the way, Sprig, how's the married life for you?"
"It's…wonderful, I guess?" Hop Pop's oldest grandchildren replied. "Ivy is always taking care of me; I have nothing to be sad about."
"Don't forget to make some tadpoles soon." Jacob side-nudged him, causing a groan from him.
"Jacob!" Anne looked at him, "Stop teasing him?"
"What about you, James?" Polly asked, still dressed in her suit, "How are thing going at the observatory?"
"Quite good!" The British young man smiled, a paper of notes in her hand. "Yesterday I observed a new star that I wanted to tell you about-"
"You're not still looking for Earth, I hope?"
"I was…tempted to do," He replied, looking around to his newfound family. "But I have outgrown that. I don't need to look out for home, for I am home."
"We all are home," Anne nodded, moving to serve everyone her food…
(…)
"Guys?" Another voice announced from outside, everyone recognizing it instantly, as the loud buzz of a dragonfly landing stopped slowly and a petite female figure, dressed in a cone hat and showing a katana on her side, got off the saddle.
"What happened? I went back to Stumpy to get my payday, and he said that you ran away in the middle of service all of a sudden."
"Amelia," Anne said, fear once again filling her eyes, as she heard the doors opening as everyone else gathered back in the room. "Well, you see…"
"There is…a thing we have to tell you," Jacob said, unsure how to say it.
"Can you tell me in one second?" His cousin replied, putting down her backpack and scrubbing sweat from her forehead. "I had a tiring day, and carrying the Box all the time gave me goosebumps."
The eyes of everyone widened, as soon as they heard that sentence, and the humans stopped moving as they mentally asked if they had heard wrong, Sprig and Polly exchanged glances, and Hop Pop covered his mouth as he started to realize (for one) what had really happened.
"You…carrying…what?" Sasha murmured, disbelief making her almost unable to think.
"The Box!" Amelia repeated, opening her backpack, and showing the irreplaceable, priceless, unique Music Box that brought all six of them to Amphibia on that fateful night, placing it on the small table in front of Anne. "That thing is quite heavy too, you know? I mean, it doesn't look that way if you just keep it in hand for a minute or two, but try carrying it on your back all day and-"
"YOU HAD IT THIS WHOLE TIME?!" Sasha roared, her disbelief now turning into anger. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED WE WERE?! Why did you bring it with you?!"
"B-but I had to," the youngest girl said, suddenly scared by the expressions Sasha (and everyone else) was showing. "Today it was my day to keep watch over it!"
"Your what?" James gasped his hand all over his hair.
"My day to watch over the Box, remember? Didn't Anne say that someone had to be responsible to watch over the Box at least one day a week?"
That WAS something Anne had said, and that she remembered. But today was one of her days, not Amelia's.
"Anyway, I know I shouldn't have brought it with me, especially considering how worried I was if I ended up damaging it somehow." Amelia continued, ignoring the concern everyone has now that they had an explanation of what happened to the Box, "However, I thought I had a lead to find out more news about the Box, so I brought it with me at some place called Bizarre Bazaar and check on it on my way back-"
"You went to the Bizarre Bazaar?" Hop Pop gasped, his voice full of horror.
"Huh, yeah? However, I wasn't lucky, so I ended up checking the whole place with no results. Then some guy provoked me, and I had to race against him in some kind of competition, then he went off-road and irked some kind of monster, so we had a huge fight with the whole Bazaar trying to escape; then some kind of wizard spilled half of his spell on the monster but instead of defeating him it gave him the ability to fly, so Akitsu and I-"
"How could you have done something this dumb..." Anne facepalmed in shock, realizing how bad the whole situation might have gone.
"Yeah, I know, Boonchuy. It was a real waste of time, as not only I wasn't able to find a lead-"
"I'm talking over the turn to keep the box!" Anne shouted, her sudden violet tone of voice shocking Amelia and making her take a couple of steps back. "THERE IS NOT SUCH A THING! What I said was that everyone has to keep watch over the Box as much as possible, any day! Not that someone must watch over the Box alone every day of the week!"
"Oh, I guess that makes sense?"
"Makes sense? MAKE SENSE?!" Jacob grabbed his cousin and started to shake her, all emotions in his body running wild, "DO YOU EVEN REALIZE WHAT YOU DID? WE THOUGHT THE BOX WAS LOST, AND WE WERE SEARCHING ALL OVER THE HOUSE, AND YOU HAD IT WITH YOU ALL ALONG, AND YOU NEVER CONSIDERED TELLING US, AND YOU ACTED VERY IRRESPONSIBLY AND-"
He stopped, a new horror dawning on his face, "Frog, that was the most adult and parent-like thing I've ever said!"
"So, in the end, the Box wasn't lost." Sasha quietly said, walking toward Amelia, "I guess that since everything ended up working fine and I did promise to be the best version of myself from now on, I'm not going to hold a grudge. But if you ever do something like this ever again, I'll-"
"Crystal clear, Sasha!" Amelia laughed nervously, as she realized she made a big mistake "Never again, I promise!"
"That's for sure!" Anne nodded, before turning to Hop Pop and handing him the manufact. "Here. Go through your trusted channels. I'm okay with waiting a little longer, if that's safer."
"Say what?" Hop Pop replied, unbelieving for Anne to trust the Box in his hands.
"Yeah, just do whatever you need to do," Jacob nodded. "As long as it is kept somewhere safe."
"I'll… do my best, kids." The old frog solemnly said "I know how important this is to you. And I know this will be kept in the safest place possible…"
Later that night, the humans were sleeping in their bunks, blissful that the adventure had resolved happily and trusting that Hop Pop and his contacts would put it someplace safer, where they would not have to worry about it being lost. He had taken them when they were lost, he gave them a place to live and a roof over their head, he helped them survive and integrate in Wartwood. He trusted them, and thus, they trusted him in turn.
Thus, they would have never guessed that, as soon as the lights were off and everyone had greeted each other good night, Hop Pop had gone out of the farm, the Calamity Box in one of his hands, a shovel in the other, walking to a spot where an old small tree with red glowing mushrooms growing on its bark stood alone, and now, was digging a hole to bury it.
"I'm sorry, kids," the old frog said as he kept shoveling, "but I can't have you showing this thing around."
He knew that he needed to get rid of it, before others would learn about it, to protect his family. The words on his book were adamant that it was dangerous, and it had to be destroyed at once. Yet, maybe, just drop it into a hole and burying it would be enough.
Yet, he couldn't help but feel guilty about his actions. The kids trusted him, and he was now betraying their trust by taking the Box and burying it, assuring it would be lost forever as they themselves thought it was just earlier. He knew it was the worst thing he could do to them: he would probably have to spend the rest of his remaining life to make amends for this single action of his.
Yet, in the same situation he would do it again if that meant the safety of his family.
There, he thought as he looked at the hole he had just dug right between the tree's roots, this should be enough. Not, let's drop the Box in there and-
He suddenly stopped, as he turned around, and saw a figure standing right in front of him, dressed in light clothes. A tall, slender figure, with a half-empty glass of water in her right hand, blonde hair curled into a ponytail. Just standing there, unmoving, paralyzed by what she just witnessed.
Her eyes widened by the shock, as he realized what the old frog was up to. First, they were filled with incomprehension. Then, by hurting. And lastly, with the anger of cold, limitless fury.
"What are you doing?" Sasha murmured, the sound leaving her lips barely above than a whisper, but still enough for the farmer to hear and knew he was now busted. "Hop Pop," the human continued, running toward him, every word accentuated by a correspondent step "WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?!"
Hello everyone!
I was able to publish for this week, but I'm not sure for the next one (I have many issues in the upcoming days). If I manage to write it in time, next update will be next week, otherwise 2 weeks from now.