In the world of Amphibia, the world of talking amphibians with wildlife that tries to kill you, we come to the small town of Wartwood. A couple years after the events of Amphibia, we find many of the residents going about their daily lives since the arrival of three special human females. Stumpy working his renovated restaurant, Wally playing his accordion, that one frog guy that is still being carried by the giant bug.
We then wind up at the little stand where a young frog girl is selling mystical trinkets, cursed amulets, and multiple bottles of various colored potions. "Here Mrs. Croaker, finally made that youth potion you asked for." she hands an elderly frog woman a glowing yellow potion. "The ingredients were a lot harder to find than I thought."
"Eh don't worry about it, Maddie. At least it's here now." Mrs. Croaker shrugged before handing Maddie a bag of copper coins.
"Try to make it last, and don't use too much of it." Maddie warned her.
"Yeah, yeah." Croaker waved off before walking away.
Maddie sighed, "I swear, that woman is always asking for something." she turns back to her mixing pot before tossing in a few things. She then stirred the stuff together before tossing an eye of a wolf-bat.
Just then one of her sisters' Rosemary came up, "I'm back sis!"
"Good, you got another delivery." Maddie said as she tossed a bag to Rosemay, who ran off to take the magical delivery. Maddie then turned to Lavender who organizing the hair samples of the frogs, "Nice sorting sis." she gave her a thumbs up, which made Lavender smile.
Ginger meanwhile came back, "Hey Mads, got more stuff for your witch potions." she dropped a box.
"Thanks, Ginge." Maddie opens up the box, "Let's see, eye of batsquito, toenail of a burrow bug, sludge from a chocopede, bark from a doom tree." she then pulls out a tiny doll Sprig, but this one was an updated one. "Um, Ginger why is..." she hid the doll behind her back with a blush.
"Oh, sorry I must have grabbed that instead of the bottle of old man tears." Ginger facepalmed, she then saw Maddie look at the doll with a sad longing look. Ginger told Lavender to take the register before pulling Maddie to the back, "Maddie, are you okay?" she takes the doll, with Maddie making a grab for it but Ginger stopped her. "I know you still have feelings for Sprig, we've seen the way you look at him. And the voodoo doll of Ivy with the pins."
Maddie sighed, as she sat down against the wall. "Actually, Marcy told me its hoodoo. There's this whole thing about the differences- but I'm getting off track. I won't deny I still really like Sprig, and I wish our engagement worked better than it did. But he's with Ivy, and they're Wartwood's self-proclaimed 'cutest' couple."
Ginger hugged Maddie, "Don't worry sis, maybe there's still a chance for Spraddie to set sail. And if not, then there are others-"
"No one will ever replace Sprig; I still remember our first encounter in grade school." Maddie reminisced as she flashbacked to when she and Sprig were pollywogs.
Baby Maddie was mixing a few things in a small bowl, until something fell off her desk. Baby Sprig hopped down, to pick it up "Hey, you dropped your crow foot." he handed her the foot, and when their stubs touched Baby Maddie felt a shiver before she stared at Baby Sprig with a creepy smile as her one exposed eye had a glimmer. He gulped, "Um, you're welcome."
Maddie sighed, "He was so cute as a pollywog." she then stood up, "Anyway, I gotta get back to work." she went back to her post, sending Lavender to polish her training cauldron.
"One transformation potion please." a young toad asked.
"What for?"
"Uuuuuuh, reasons."
Maddie shrugged before bringing out a sample tray, "Take your pick, 2 coppers each."
The toad picked, "Mmmmmm, this one." after paying for the flask the toad ran off.
Maddie put the tray away, "One healing potion please."
"Of course." she grabs a test tube with a healing symbol on it before turning to give to the customer. "Here you- Sprig?"
"Hey Maddie." the eldest Plantar greeted as he held his neck, and he was covered in bruises. "Just came back from my latest exploration with Ivy." he said.
"And I take it you guys had to fight some monsters?" she hands Sprig the potion, which he drank as the elixir healed his bruises. But he still groaned as he moved his neck.
"Well yeah, but also I think one of Ivy's ambushes went wrong and I ended up rolling down a steep hill into a rock wall. Ended up landing on my neck in weird angles." Sprig explained as he winced while he rolled his neck. He then gave Maddie 5 copper coins in payment.
"I know I shouldn't judge on how couples do things, but maybe she should cut down her surprise attacks." Maddie told him, "That was my last healing potion."
"I've tried telling her to tone it down, but before I know it another ambush comes when I least expect it." Sprig sighed before leaning against the counter. "I swear I've fought monsters that nearly eaten me alive, why are Ivy's tackles hurting this much? I used to take them just fine when we were kids."
"Well, how many times does Ivy tackle you?" Maddie asked as Lavender caused another explosion.
"Well... at first Ivy just did every now and then. Then when we officially started dating when my family first returned from Newtopia she did it like... I don't a few times on the weekends." Sprig told the witchcraft user, "But sometime after Anne and her friends left, Ivy started doing them every day." Sprig held his ribs, which Maddie noticed had some bandages wrapped around them. "They were small tackles, but there were some that really hurt. Like when we had a date at that fancy place at the New Newtopia, she speared me right through a table. Doctors said it ruptured a few ribs; I love Ivy but... I don't know if it's the chronic injuries, the repetitive dates. But the spark I had just... sort of fizzled."
Maddie leaned in, "Really?"
Sprig nodded; he rested his arms on the counter and laid his head on them, "She's been my best frog friend for so long. We're training partners and we've just explored 80% of the new continent, but most of the time we always did what she wants. One extreme date after another, anything I plan for us to do together she makes it into a contact sport. I love her energy, but Frog darn it I can't keep up with her. And I fear that she may end up killing me. I've been contemplating ending things with her, but if I do, she'll totally kill me."
Maddie frown before holding Sprig's hand, "Well Sprig, I can't tell you what to do. If you really wanna stay with her, it's your call. If you want to break things off, you must be absolutely sure. Either way, I just want you to be happy."
Sprig chuckled, "I'm just glad we're still cool, even though our engagement was terminated."
Maddie gave a friendly not creepy smile, "Me too." she then hugged Sprig, the eldest Plantar kin stood there frozen with a shocked look on his face. He's not sure but being held by the creepy girl felt... kind of nice. Ivy always crushed him in flea-bear hugs, but with Maddie it was... comforting. He slowly returned the hug, a faint smile spreading on his face.
"She smells like lavender and dough." he whispered to himself; Maddie giggled at his words he unintentionally let out before they broke off. "Welp, I'm gonna try and see if I can get an appointment at the spa. The massage lady might hurt less, take care Mads." Sprig hopped away, wincing in pain every now and then.
"Later." Maddie turned to see her gleaming sisters, "Whatever you're thinking, don't." she shot down whatever plan they were hatching. The Flour triplets all gave each other knowing looks.
"Girls... let's get our sister the boy of her dreams." Ginger proclaimed.
As the little girls went to the back to plot, Maddie finished a transaction with a customer. She then dusted off her skull collection.
Ding, ding.
Maddie went back to the counter, "How can I help..." she looked around for whoever could have rung the bell. "Um, is anyone- wait. Don't tell me."
"AMBUSH!" Maddie sidestepped a falling Ivy, the adventurous frog girl popped up and shook off the cobwebs. "Dang, I can never get one over on you." Ivy wiped the dirt off her clothes.
She hops over the counter as Maddie told her, "I keep telling you Ive, it defeats the purpose of an ambush if you shout it at the top of your lungs."
"Hey, it's not my fault everyone else has slow reaction time." Ivy chuckled, "Anyway, have you seen Sprig? I want to talk to him about something."
"Oh he's-"
"He went that way." Ginger pointed in the opposite direction Sprig went.
Ivy yelped in surprise of the pollywog's popping up, "Oh, thanks Lavender." she hopped away.
"Actually, I'm Ginger!" she corrected.
Maddie gave her a stern look, "Ginger, you better not be plotting something."
"Oh big sistew, why would you think such a thing?" Ginger gave her the cutesy eyes.
"I mean it, no schemes, no plots, no ruses. None, okay?" Maddie told her. "Now go organize the bird toenails."
"Okay." Ginger went to the back, meeting up with her other sisters where they were brewing a potion from Maddie's spell book. "She didn't say anything about... shenanigans." Ginger cackled as she added a drop of a pink unmarked fluid.