Down in the basement of the Plantars' house, Sprig was rummaging through Anne's backpack. "Wow, Anne, look at all your cool stuff! What's this," he asked as he held up a toenail clipper. "Ah, I get it. Torture device."

"That's a toenail clipper."

"Oh, okay, okay, sure. Oh! How about this?" He picked up a bicycle pump, stuffed it in his mouth and pumped air into it. "It's painful!" He blew all the air out. "Oh, I love this." He picked up a cat pen and clicked it. "This is amazing."

Anne smiled. "You know what? You can keep it."

Suddenly, a bell clanged and Hop Pop called out, "Kids! Chow time!"

At the dinner table, the kids pounded their forks on the table as they chanted, "Time to eat, time to eat, time to eat!"

"Hold on, you kids. Hold on," the old frog said as he laid their food out.

The sight of the bug stew in front of her made Anne cringe and she pushed her bowl away. "Uh, you know what? I think I'm gonna pass."

Hop Pop gave her the stink eye. "Why? Is my food not good enough for the princess?"

"Well, if I'm the princess, then you're the king of bad cooking," she said with a chuckle.

"OOOOOOOOHHHH!" Sprig and Polly said.

"Oh, yeah? Well, you... I..." Hop Pop paused, trying to think of a witty comeback, but he couldn't think of one.

"What's the matter, Hop Pop? Frog in your throat?"

"OOOOOOOOHHHHH!" said Polly.

"Oh, she got you again," said Sprig.

Hop Pop slammed his bowl down and said, "Oh, dang it! You know what? I'm gonna take a nap. I don't believe this. I feed you, I house you, I teach you the ways of Ripple, and this is how you repay me? If you don't shape up soon, Anne, I'm throwin' you out!" He marched out of the kitchen and slammed the door.

"Yeesh. What's his problem?" Anne asked as she grabbed a cane leaning against an umbrella stand and said with an old man voice, "'I'm Hop Pop, and I cook bad and have a temper problem!'"

Sprig and Polly laughed. "That's so Hop Pop," said the latter.

"Eat your aphids, don't play with them. Elbows off the table!" The kids laughed more. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother putting up with you at all!" The laughter stopped immediately when Anne slammed the cane on the table, snapping it in half. "Oopsies. Guess I don't know my own strength, right, guys?" Sprig and Polly stared at the cane in horror. "You guys okay? What's the big deal? It's just one cane."

"That wasn't just any cane," Sprig exclaimed. "It was Hop Pop's special cane, passed down from his father, Hop Poppity Pop, all the way from his father, Hop-and-Lock-Drop Soppity Pop."

Upon realizing she'd just destroyed a priceless family heirloom, Anne began panicking. "Oh! You guys gotta help me. He's gonna kick me out the second he finds out about this. I cannot go back to living in a cave!" Oh, the bad memories came back.

Anne, dripping wet from the rain, shivered in fear and misery as she held her knees up to her chest. Maybe the bugs crawling all over her will ignore her if she just stayed still...

"The nights were the hardest," Anne said with a shudder.

"Don't worry, Anne. We'll do whatever it takes to help you," assured Sprig.

Polly made a dismissive wave and said, "Eh, count me out."

"POLLY!"

"What? I hardly know her."

Anne smiled slyly and held up a jolly rancher. "Would you help me for one of these?"

Polly's eyes lit up instantly. "Candy from another world? Lady, you've got yourself a deal."

"Glad to hear it. Now, let's try to save my skin."

They put slop on both halves and Polly tied it together with her bow. "YEAH!" everyone cheered. The cheering stopped when the top half fell off.

Anne placed both halves on the table. "Maybe I can use Ripple to fix it."

"Uh, I don't know," said Sprig. "You sure you want to risk blowing it up?"

Anne thought it over. "Good point. Okay, maybe we can't fix it, but someone else can? Someone good with... wood?"

Hearing this, Sprig snapped his fingers. "Anne, you're a genius! We'll just take it to Leopold Loggle, the woodsmith. He loves wood. Almost a little too much."

Loggle was an old blue axolotl wearing a pair of goggles, a beige shirt, a brown work apron and a red bandana. He inspected the cane halves and muttered, "h-huh. Oh, oh, yes. Well, aren't you fascinating? Yes, you are."

"Can you fix it?" Anne asked hopefully.

"As a matter of fact, I can... not."

"Huh. Can you make a new one?" Sprig asked.

"Absolutely... no way."

Polly, growing increasingly annoyed, asked impatiently, "Do you have one we could buy?"

"Of course I do... n't. I don't."

Anne asked, "Why do you keep doing that?"

"Old smithing accident. You don't want to know."

"Uh, okay, so-"

Apparently the old axolotl didn't hear himself as he continued his story, "Tripped on an anvil. Landed neck-first on a metal pipe. Pierced my voice box clean through!" He showed them the scar on his throat and the girls reacted with disgust while Sprig responded with, "Cool." Loggle continued, "Switched over to wood after that. Anyhow, I'm afraid I can't do much for you. That cane was made with wood from the incredibly rare, extremely dangerous Doom Tree!" He took out a book titled "Incredibly Rare, Extremely Dangerous Trees" and opened it, revealing an illustration of a gnarled, skeletal black tree.

The kids gasped. That figures.

"Few have made it to the Doom Tree alive, fewer yet returned. It holds many secrets that mortals dare not-"

Anne interrupted Loggle, "Dude, it's a tree. Just tell us where it is."

"Yeah, Loggle, cut the chitchat," Sprig said as he slammed his fist on the counter.

"You're bald!" Polly shouted.

That last comment hurt Loggle a little. "Okay, okay. I got a map to the Doom Tree right here, but it'll cost ya."

"Click," Anne said as she took a picture of the map with her phone.

Loggle gave her an annoyed look. "Or you could do that for free."

"Come on, guys," she said to Polly and Sprig. "We gotta hurry. Hop Pop could wake up at any second!"

"Right," they said.

"Be careful, you kids," exclaimed Loggle as they left the shop. "It's cursed, I tell ya. Cursed!"

"To the Doom Tree, everyone!" Anne cheered with Sprig and Polly.

And then Sprig came back and pointed to a wood carving of Loggle as an Olympian god. "Whoa, Loggle. We gotta talk about this, man. We're comin' back. We're gonna talk about this. All right, good-bye."

"No," Johan said. Anne, Sprig and Polly figured they needed more manpower, so they went to the tea shoppe to require his help. And that was his response.

"Aw, come on!" exclaimed Anne. "It'll be exciting and adventurous!"

"Anne, you made your bed, now sleep in it. I'm not going to get caught up in another 'adventure' just because you did something bad. Besides, I got work to do, and you can take care of yourselves."

"Okay, fine. I guess this means we're going to have to share a bed now."

That got Johan's attention. "Say what?"

"If Hop Pop finds out I broke his cane, not only will he stop training me, but he'll kick me out of the house!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "I CANNOT GO BACK TO LIVING IN A CAVE, JOJO!"

"Bene! Bene! Smettila di scuotermi!"

"SAY IT IN ENGLISH!"

"I SAID STOP SHAKING ME!" Johan shouted as he pushed Anne off. He brushed himself off and said, "I guess I can pull some strings if this fails. I'll get a sleeping bag for you and..."

"Oh, no," Sylvia shouted from another room. "It's bad enough YOU'RE here, JoJo! We don't need two!"

"Mom!" Felicia shouted. She said to Anne, "You're more than welcome, deary."

"Oh, thanks, Mrs. Sundew," said Anne.

"Hey, Sprig!" Ivy shouted from the ceiling. She landed on one of the tables and said, "You off on another adventure with JoJo?"

Sprig blushed a little and coughed before eh said, "Nah, we're saving Anne's hide this time. We're going to..." Anne slapped his mouth close with her hand.

"Nowhere exciting! Let's go, JoJo!" She grabbed the boy by the wrist and dragged him out the tea shoppe.

"How come I never go on adventures with them?" Ivy asked her mother.

"Because I said so."

"I hate that answer."

The group followed Loggle's map into a deep jungle. Johan slashed through the foliage with the sling blade to make way, until they came across a clearing and in the center of it was the gnarled, black skeletal tree. "Quello รจ un albero brutto," said Johan.

"I don't know what you said," said Sprig. "But if it was something about the tree, I agree with you. Just one of Mother Nature's horrible mistakes."

As they approached the tree, Polly noticed the skeletons of frogs scattered around it. "Heh, heh. Frogs died here."

Anne pointed to a branch on the top of the tree. "Look. That branch is perfect." She was about to climb it when Sprig said, "Wait. Do you think this is the perfect opportunity to practice Ripple?"

"Ripple? Now?" Anne asked. Then she leaned in a little closer. "How?"

"Use it to walk up this tree instead of climbing it." Sprig inflated his throat sack and his body began to glow. "By focusing the Ripples into your feet, and keeping a steady flow, you can walk straight up completely vertical surfaces." He demonstrated by walking up the side of the tree.

Anne watched with awe. "Me wanna!"

"A warning," Sprig said. "Apply too much and your footsteps will explode every time you walk. Too little and you'll fall and crack your head."

Anne blinked a few times then said, "Good to know."

"I hope she does fall," said Polly with sadistic glee.

Johan gave her a disturbed look. "Seriously. You're scary."

Anne looked up at the tree, then made her decision. She took a deep breath through her nose, and her body began to glow a little. Then she walked up the tree and to her surprise, she didn't fall off. Excited, she laughed and began to do a little dance. "I can walk on trees, can dance on trees, I can..."

"Peh, you people and your legs," scoffed Polly.

"Ahem," Johan coughed, interrupting Anne's ditty. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh, right. The branch."

"Here." He handed her the sling blade. She took it, ran up the tree and sliced off the branch. She grabbed it, jumped off the tree and landed on the ground, holding the branch up high. "SUCCESS!" Suddenly, the tree let out a shriek and began to shake. "Uh, did the tree just scream?"

The "tree" sprouted six legs, a pair of eyes and wings. It glared at them and shrieked again, spitting an orange liquid on them. "Oh, hey, it's maple," Sprig said after licking it off his face.

"RUUUN!" screamed Anne.

The kids took off running with the "tree" chasing after them. "That's not a tree," Johan shouted. "It's a giant stick bug!"

"A bug that wants to kill us," exclaimed Sprig.

"Less talky-talky, more runny-runny," shouted Polly as she clung onto Anne' hair.

The stick insect slashed at Sprig with its claws, forcing him to duck and dodge. Johan summoned DARE and proceeded to pummel it. "MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA!" The stick insect flew over the trees and landed with a crash. "That took care of it," Johan said. The smug look on his face vanished when he heard it screech. "Or I just made it angrier. HIDE!"

The kids ducked behind a tree and kept quiet when the stick insect reemerged from the trees and looked around for them. But then a few smaller bugs began to crawl all over Anne's hair, making her eyes widen in fear. Johan put a hand over her mouth and whispered, "Don't. Scream."

A worm crawled down her shirt and she jumped up and began flailing her arms around. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I HATE BUGS! GET THEM OFF ME! GET OFF ME! I'M GONNA ROLL AROUND IN THE GRASS!"

"Nice going, Anne," Johan cursed as they ran off again with the stick insect giving chase, all the way to Wartwood.

Loggle sighed as he spun the store's "Open" sign to "Closed". "Well, Loggle, another day, another step closer to bankrupt- Eh?" He saw the kids running toward him and they ran into the shop. "What the- What's going on?"

"Big bug, big bug," Johan babbled. "BIG BUG CHASE US!"

The stick insect burst open the wall and shrieked. Everyone screamed and scattered with Loggle hiding in a chest. "What's it gonna take to get rid of this thing?" Anne exclaimed before she spotted the cuckoo clocks hanging on the walls. Thinking quick, she threw them at the stick insect. She paused when she saw a rather fancy-looking one. "Oh, this is nice." Then she threw it at the stick insect.

Loggle wept a little. "That took 20 years to carve."

Johan took out his gun and fired at the stick insect. Polly put on some wooden limbs and punched it. Anne picked up a wooden leg and smacked it on the stick insect's abdomen. Sprig grabbed some sandpaper and rubbed it on the stick insect. "I'm gonna sand your face!" The stick insect kicked them all away.

Anne got back up and saw something that caught her eye. A jar labeled "Termites". Termites? "Termites?! Why would a woodsmith have termites?!"

"I'm a complicated man," Loggle shouted from his hiding spot.

"Works for me," said Johan. "Throw it, Anne!"

"INCOMING!" Anne threw the jar at the stick insect and they proceeded to eat all the wood on its body. When the dust cleared, there stood a scrawny little bug. Johan blinked before saying, "This is kind of disappointing."

"Cool," said Sprig.

"This world is messed up," said Anne.

The stick insect, realizing it had lost its wooden armor, whimpered pathetically and fled. The kids cheered and high fived each other. "Now, let's get this cane back to Hop Pop," she said as she held the cane.

"GIVE ME THAT!" Loggle snatched it right out of her hands.

"Hey!"

"What gives, Loggle," exclaimed Sprig.

"I'll tell you what gives. This doesn't even begin to cover the damages you've caused to my shop," he said as he pointed to the wreck that was once his store. "You're gonna have to give me something else. Come on. Pony up."

Johan sighed. "Guess I better take the cash from the lockbox and..."

"No, JoJo," said Anne. "I don't want you to pay for my mistakes."

"Well, how else are you going to pay for this man?"

Sprig answered that question when he took out the pen. "Will this work?"

Loggle took it and muttered, "What? What is this, uh..."

"It's a pen," said Johan. "You write stuff with it."

Loggle ignored him and clicked it with fascination. "Oh! I like this. You can go," he said as he waved them off.

Sprig sighed sadly as they left. "Sorry, Anne. After all we worked for too."

"It's okay. We'd better head home. Hop Pop's probably already awake and furious."

"Probably a bad time to bring this up, but I still get the candy, right," asked Polly.

"Why don't you use your Ripple to fix it," asked Johan. "It can't hurt to try, right?"

Anne took out the two broken halves and said, "Well, what have I got to lose?" Anne inhaled, began to glow and poured the energy into both halves. The halves fused together into one. Anne let out a cheer. "My butt is saved!"

"Except you'll have to explain to Hop Pop about this bill," Polly said as she held it up.

"Ooh..."

"Well, my work is done," said Johan. "Enjoy the consequences."

"Oh, no!" Anne said as she grabbed his arm. "We're all in this together, JoJo!"

At the Plantar farm house, Hopediah woke up with a yawn. "Whoa, boy. I needed that. Hope nothing happened while I was asleep to make me mad again." Then he entered the kitchen and saw the kids and took note of their exhausted expressions. "Oh, no. What did you do?" He got the answer when he saw the bill sitting on the table. "What's this?" He took one look at it and his eyes widened. "HOLY TOLEDO, LOOK AT ALL THOSE ZEROES!"

"It's okay," said Sprig. "We paid it off with Anne's magic click pen."

"What the heck is going on here?!"

Anne decided to come clean. "I'm really sorry, Hop Pop. I was goofing around, and I broke your favorite cane."

"You WHAT?!"

"And I went through a whole lot of trouble trying to get you a new one so you wouldn't notice, but then we got chased around by a stick bug, we destroyed Loggle's shop, and I had to use Ripple on the cane, even at the risk of blowing it up." She sighed as she placed the cane back in the umbrella stand. "I know, I know. I'll show myself out." She turned to Johan and asked, "Sure the Sundews won't mind, JoJo?"

"Sylvia, yes. Ivy and Felicia, no. I'm pretty sure Ivy could use another female friend anyway."

Just then Sprig and Polly grabbed Anne by the legs and started crying. "We'll come visit you, Anne. We promise," said Sprig.

Polly bawled loudly, "And just when I was starting to like you!"

Anne felt tears run down her face as she hugged them both. "Don't make this harder than it is."

Hopediah watched the scene in confusion and asked, "What the- What's going on?"

"You're throwing me out. You know, like you said you would."

Hopediah smiled and said, "Anne, truth be told, I was never gonna throw you out. I was just talking tough so that you'd show me a little bit more respect."

"It didn't sound like that to me," said Johan. "Something about making her live in a cave?"

"What?! I would never do that!" Then the old frog admitted, "But, I probably was a little bit too harsh. But I only did it because you remind me of myself when I was your age," he said to Anne. "Rough around the edges. Now, put that bag down, young lady. You're not going anywhere."

Sprig and Polly cheered. "I wasn't worried," said Polly.

"Thanks, Hop Pop," said Anne as she wiped her tears. "So you're not mad about the cane and the bill?"

"Oh, I'm furious about the cane and the bill. You're on dish duty for two months!"

"Ugh. Yes, sir!"

"Now that that's settled, I wrote a long list of comebacks to get you back for this morning." The old frog took out a piece of paper and cleared his throat. "'Hey, Anne, is that your hair, or is it a dandelion?' Ha." No one laughed. "Uh- Oh. Are those long, lanky limbs, Anne, or are those, uh, twigs? Ah! Eh..." No one laughed. "The moment has passed, hasn't it?"

"You stayed up all night coming up with that," snarked Johan.

"I'm a very heavy thinker."

"Well, I'm out of here," said Johan as he left. "The Sundews are going to wonder where I've been again."

"Tell Sylvia I said hi," called out Hopediah.

"And tell Ivy I said the same," called out Sprig.

Johan gave Sprig a strange look, then smiled in understanding. "I will."

"Why did he smile?" asked Sprig.

"I don't know, just roll with it," said Hopediah.

To Be Continued...