Anne was in a sour mood; it was the day after she had visited Sasha and she was still pretty upset with her. Everyone at the breakfast table could tell that Anne was upset.
"Anne? You doin' okay?" Hop Pop warily asked. "I know you're probably upset about what happened at Toad Tower and all, but it'll be okay."
"Yeah! You still got us!" Sprig said in high spirits, you could hear the excitement pulsating from him like it was an aura.
Anne was barely even paying attention to them, so she responded without thinking. "I know but even after I went back Sasha just made me extra upset at her. I mean how does she manage it, even after I straight up tell her all the bad stuff she did to me and Marcy she still thinks she's in the right and that it's our fault that we didn't push back against her." A few seconds later Anne had realized what she said and slapped her hand to her mouth. She had been planning to keep her going back to talk with Sasha a secret as they would scold her for doing it. The planter's mouths hung wide open shocked that she would even think about going back to see Sasha let alone actually do it.
"SAY WHAT!" Hop Pop yelled. "You went back, why would you even think about doing that."
"I know, I know, it was a bad idea, but I just had to talk to Sasha after what happened."
"Anne, not only was it dangerous but it was dumb. What if they caught you."
"Don't worry, Sasha was the only one that knew I was there, no one else even saw me."
"If you say so, but don't go doing that again."
"I won't" Anne started rubbing her arm and looked down at the floor. "I'm actually going to go and find Marcy." Her voice was quiet, just barely above a whisper. Anne really didn't want to leave the planters, but she was really worried about Marcy, she was always such a klutz back on earth, and in a world as dangerous as Amphibia that was not good.
"Well, the mountain pass should be cleared up by now. I'll see if I can get us a wagon, then we can go search for her."
"No Hop Pop, I mean I'm going alone."
"Take me with you!" Sprig said jumping into the conversation between Hop Pop and Anne. "I can ride on your back like we always do!" Sprig jumped onto the table accidentally putting one of his feet into Hop Pops breakfast.
"Dang it boy!" Hop Pop said before looking back at Anne "Anne, it's dangerous outside of the valley, you shouldn't go alone."
"I can go with her!" Sprig said jumping up and down. Anne and Hop Pop didn't even spare him a glance and just continued.
"I have to go on my own. I have good control of my Calamity Powers. With a wagon, however far you make it in a month, I can go in less than a week. It will be way faster if I go alone."
"Anne! Let me go with you!" Sprig Jumped on her shoulders yet he was still ignored.
Hop Pop and Anne stared each other down, neither wanting to back down. After a few seconds, Hop Pop conceded realizing that no matter what Anne wasn't going to back down. "All right fine. But you're definitely not leaving today, you'll need to prepare."
Anne spent the next week preparing for her journey, going around to all the different shops in town and buying whatever supplies she thought she would need including food, camping gear, and even a knife for hunting. Anne knew she was good at packing, she had even been able to fit a bike pump in her backpack after all, but even she didn't think she could fit everything she bought in her backpack. Luckily for her Hop Pop had her back and ended up giving her his old travel sac. It looked identical to those explorer backpacks you would see in movies, and it was over twice the size of Anne's backpack giving her plenty of space for everything she bought.
Once the week was up, Anne felt like she was fully prepared to leave. She double-checked her stuff making sure everything was there before stepping outside the farm, the planters not too far behind. Sprig bounced over to her with a spring in his step almost certainly going to ask her again. Throughout the entire week, Sprig has been bothering her and Hop Pop nonstop asking if he could come along with her. Anne had been mostly successful in ignoring him, but he was getting on her nerves.
"Hey Anne! Can I come with you?" Sprig asked with a smile.
"DUDE! You've asked me this so much already I've even told you no a few times, why do you want to come so badly?" Anne asked her patience running thin.
"I really really want to see the outside world." Anne was so close to yelling at him for being annoying for a week over a reason like that, but she didn't as he kept talking. "Also, you're my best friend, and I'm not letting you go alone. SprAnne against the world remember.
Those words caused her response to die in her throat. Tears welled up in her eyes. He was her best friend; she had forgotten how good a friend he was after what happened with Sasha. Anne finally caved to his pleas. "All right, you can come."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Yelled an orange frog from behind Sprig. He may have let Anne go but he would not let Sprig go with her.
"But why? You said it yourself; she shouldn't go alone." Sprig said.
"It's way too dangerous!"
"But you let Anne go."
"Sprig, Anne has magical powers. You don't."
"B-But."
"NO BUTS!"
Anne saw her time to jump into this conversation. "Hop Pop, it's okay I'll take care of him. It'll be fine." Anne picked up Sprig and placed him on her shoulders giving him a smile. Both of them stared down Hop Pop showing they weren't going to back down, and once again he was forced to relent just as he'd done with Anne.
"FINE! Guess I don't have any authority anymore." He mumbled to himself.
Sprig cheered and ran back inside the house to pack his things. While Sprig was doing that, lots of footsteps were heard behind Anne. Anne turned around to see almost the whole town walking toward her. Throughout the week the whole town had learned that Anne would be leaving to find her friend and a way home, so they came to see her off.
They all started to say their goodbyes to Anne, sad to see her go as she had become a big part of the community. After all the goodbyes to the townsfolk were said and done Felicia Sundew approached Anne and gave her a wrapped-up box.
"When we heard you were leaving, we all got together to get you something. We asked Hopediah for the measurement, we hope you like it." Felicia Sundew said stepping back into the crowd. Opening the gift, Anne was greeted with a pair of leather gauntlets. Anne put them on, and they fit perfectly, they covered her forearm to her hand, yet she could still move her arm with maximum mobility. "We thought it would be nice if you had something to protect your hands when you fight." Felicia supplied the reason for getting them.
"I love them!" Anne said with tears streaming down her eyes. "THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!" Anne yelled to all the townsfolk.
Sprig finally came out of the house with his own bag of things which Anne was somehow able to fit into her own backpack. Hop Pop and Polly approached Anne and Sprig to give their goodbyes.
"Well, I guess this is it." Hop Pop said trying and failing to hold back tears.
"Don't worry we'll be back all safe and sound." Anne said trying to ease his worries.
"I know you will. Here take this it will help you on your journey." Hop Pop handed her a sack of coppers.
"Hop Pop you've already done so much for me, I can't take this." Anne tried to place the bag of coins back in Hop Pop's hands, but he wouldn't take it back.
"Nonsense, Anne you're family. And I can't send my family out into the world without any money. Plus, the stands doing really well lately." Hop Pop said whispering that last part to Anne. Anne finally accepted the money and the whole family went into a giant group hug.
"See you later guys." Anne powered up and Sprig jumped onto her back.
"DON'T DIE!" Polly yelled at them. With that they were off, flying toward the mountains, over the mountains, and out of the valley, the clouds parted revealing the rest of this world.
"It's beautiful, ready to go on some adventures?" Anne asked Sprig.
"You bet I am!"
Sasha had been training nonstop since the day they captured Anne. From sparring with toads to practicing on the training dummies, no matter what time of day, you would always find her in the courtyard training. She had already gone through dozens of training dummies and her spars almost always turned bloody.
One of many spars she would do today was about to begin, Sasha versus Percy. It started simple, the two of them clashing swords with no one getting the upper hand. Then the memories of that day came back into the forefront of Sasha's mind, how Anne had refused to cooperate with her and the toads.
"Sasha"
How Anne had fought back against her and destroyed their friendship.
"Sasha!"
How Anne had come back and told her it was her fault.
"SASHA!"
Sasha snapped out of her thoughts and came back to reality; she was standing over Percy who was on the ground. His sword lay meters away, his armor had many new slash marks engraved into it, and he was even bleeding heavily in a few locations. Captain Grime was standing off to the side calling her name.
"My Office Now!" He said with an angry scowl before walking back into the tower expecting her to follow. Sasha arrived at Grimes's office only to receive a condescending glare although there was a hint of worry in his one eye.
"What is going on with you, this is the fifth time this week that you sent one of my troops to the infirmary." Grime asked with a harsh tone.
"Nothing is going on; I'm just training like normal." Sasha rolled her eyes not wanting to be here.
"That is not training like normal. You are burying yourself in your training and lashing out at others. Is this because of what happened with Anne?"
"No…"
"Sasha." His glare pierced right through her soul.
"Fine! Yes, it is!" Sasha yelled at him. "My best friend chose frogs over me, and she even cut off our friendship for good, I am allowed to be upset." Sasha calmed down a bit before continuing. "Nobody besides Anne and Marcy liked me back on earth. Now I've lost Anne as a friend too, and it's probably all my fault."
Grime pinched the bridge of his nose. "You can be so insufferable sometimes. Just go to Wartwood and talk to her if this matters to you that much."
"Anne doesn't want to see, she basically told me herself when she came back."
"She came back? Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wasn't important."
"I'm supposed to know everything that happens in this tower. Sasha Waybright, due to your insubordination, you are to take a week's leave from duty in Wartwood."
"The town won't let me in, they probably heard what happened."
"You're Sasha Waybright, you always get what you want, just demand they let you in or tell them it was all a misunderstanding, they're dumb frogs, I'm sure they'll believe you."
"Anne broke our friendship because I manipulate and bully people, if I do it again to the people she cares about she will want to see me even less."
Seeing as Grime was getting nowhere with this, he walked over to her and picked her up. Grime carried a protesting Sasha all the way out of the tower and placed her down on top of one of their tarantula mounts. "Go to Wartwood and deal with it when you get there."
"But-" Sasha tried to protest.
"Don't care, goodbye." He said before smacking the abdomen of the large spider making it run out of the southern toad tower. And just like that, Sasha was off to Wartwood.