A couple weeks later, the Plantar's were riding through quarrelers pass, when a freak storm hit.
"THUNDERSTORM!" Hop Pop shouted, pulling Bessie to stop! "We gotta find some place to hunker down!"
The wind began to pick up and a lightning bolt came down and hit the ground in front of them. Bessie was spooked and began to move quickly and erratically. The fwagon hit a pot hole and Polly and Sprig were knocked off, falling right off the road and into a ravine filled with water, while Anne, Hop Pop, and Bessie were knocked to the ground, slightly under a makeshift cave of fallen rocks. They were knocked unconscious. The next morning, Anne woke up, her vision fuzzy.
"Huh? What?" Anne mumbled, raising herself up and rubbing her eyes.
"Hop Pop?" Anne asked, seeing his limp body, "Hop Pop!"
Anne quickly tried to get up, but fell down because her limbs were still sore from last night. She began to crawl over and began shaking him.
"Hop Pop!? Are you okay!?"
She moved her ear around his chest, listening for any heartbeat.
'Come on!' She thought before hearing his heart beating, feeling a large wave of relief. 'Oh thank you god!'
Hop Pop groaned.
"W-w-what happened? Am I in frog heaven... I doubt it... I have a dark, mysterious past." Hop Pop said, "Wait, Sprig! Polly! Where are you!?"
"Hop Pop, slow down, you might hurt yourself." Anne said.
Hop Pop leaned up, ignoring any pain, and looked around for his grandchildren.
"Where are they? Where are we?!" He asked.
"A cave. The fwagon hit a pole thanks to the storm and we got separated." Anne said, remembering the cause of the crash. They... they fell into the ravine and landed in water, so they might be okay... we just need to track them."
Elsewhere, Sprig was dragged onto land.
"Come on, Sprig, wake up!" Polly said.
She began slapping him several times with her stumps before he awoke and got another slap by accident.
"Ow!" Sprig said.
"Good, you're up!"
"Ugh, yeah. And my face hurts." Sprig said, rubbing his cheeks.
"Sorry not sorry but I had to wake you up." Polly said as she gestured around the area. "Because we need to find a way OUT of this place!"
They were at the bottom of a ravine, too steep to climb out, and too tall to hop out.
"Maybe there's a cave we can get higher."
"Then let's look around for it. Before the storm kicks up again." Polly said to her brother, hoping back into her bucket.
"Agreed."
The two of them began walking down the ravine, searching for a cave to use so they could get out as the last remnants of rain was battering their bodies.
"I hope Hop Pop and Anne are okay." Sprig said.
"You don't think they-"
"Anne is too stubborn to die." Sprig said, before they went back to silence.
'True.' Polly thought as they confused through the ravine. 'Plus, Anne could probably sniff us out and find us first.'
Pretty soon, they found a cave.
"This should help us find a way out." Sprig said as he picked up Polly by her bucket.
"Yeah but why are you carrying me?" Polly asked.
"So we don't get separated. It's dark in here." Sprig said as he walked into the cave, "Let's hope this leads the right way."
"You and me both." Polly said as she began looking around the cave.
They entered the cave and noticed that it began to get dark. Before long, they wouldn't be able to see. So Sprig began walking a bit faster to find a way back to Anne and Hop Pop.
"Hey, I think I see a light!" Polly said, "Maybe it's the way out!"
"Can't hurt to try."
Sprig and Polly began moving towards the light, not realizing something was moving in the dark towards them. They made it through the hole and landed in a pile of bones.
"Aaah!" They both let out, jumping in fear.
"Why are all of these bones here?!" Polly asked in shock and fear.
"I don't know, and I don't want to find out." Sprig said.
"Really? You don't?"
"We would be happy to tell you."
The sudden voice made Sprig and Polly jolt in fear, holding each other tightly as they looked around the cave!
"W-w-who's there?"
"Don't be afraid, it's just us."
Suddenly, two large serpent like heads slithered out from the darkness over Sprig and Polly. Smiling down at them to be friendly when they were actually terrifying.
"H-h-hi." Polly said.
"W-W-Who are you?" Sprig asked, slowly stepping away from them.
"Oh, why the rush for answers?" The Blue olm asked.
"Yes, it's too soon, why don't you stay for dinner!" The pink one said, before lunging.
"AAAAH!" Sprig screamed as he jumped high, dodging the creatures!
"RUN!" Polly ordered him, still being carried.
"Quickly, in there!" Sprig said, seeing a crack in the wall.
The two siblings got into the crack, safe inside as the two serpents heads crashed against the wall!
"No! We lost them!" One said.
"Typical, I should've know you would be too slow!" The other Olm said.
"Me?! You're the one that was dragging behind, Lysil! You made us miss them!" The other Olm shouted at him.
"Ugh! It's days like this I wish I wasn't attached to you, Angwin!" Lysil shouted at her brother.
"Just... find a stick or something to get them out of the crack."
"Fine. Let's find a stick." Lysil said as they turned around revealing they were conjoined twins, slithering back into the darkness to find a large stick.
"We need to get out of here! They won't be gone forever." Polly said to her brother.
"Agreed."
Sprig peaked out a bit before rushing out while holding Polly!
'Anne, where are you?!' They thought, trying to find her and Hop Pop or an exit.
On the trail, a brown wolf was sniffing the ground, trying to get the scent of Sprig or Polly, but was unsuccessful.
"Anything, Anne?" Hop Pop asked, riding with the Fwagon being damaged and Bessie a bit shaken up.
Anne shook her head, before going back to sniffing the ground.
"Daggnabit." Hop Pop said, wishing they found a lead already!
They spent too long recovering the Fwagon and getting Bessie back at the front, who knows what's been happening to Sprig and Polly by now?! Sprig looked out, looking for the Olms, but not seeing them.
"Coast is clear." He whispered to Polly as she was looking forward.
"Okay, let's go."
Sprig moved faster than before, hopping to get great distances, as he and Polly continued to explore the cave. They tried to stay quiet, hoping to not attract them. They did hear a stick breaking, making Sprig whipped in fear.
'Don't hear us! Don't hear us! Don't hear us!' He thought.
Sprig and Polly waited a bit before they moved again.
"Where did they go?!" Lysil shouted at her brother.
"I don't know! They must've slipped away!" Angwin shouted back!
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you to do something so simple!"
"Don't blame this on me just because you can't sniff out a pair of frogs! You're the better tracker!" Angwin shouted at her.
"A tracker is only as good if the body can keep up!" Lysil shouted back.
"Why you little!"
The two began fighting, which gave Polly and Sprig the chance to escape.
'Geez, is that how we are?' Sprig and Polly thought, comparing their sibling relationship to the conjoined Olms.
"I see a light." Polly said, quietly.
Sprig looked ahead and felt joy, seeing a small light ahead and a possible exit out of the cave!
"Come on."
He took off running as fast as he could as a twig snapped under his foot, alerting anyone that had sensitive enough hearing to pick it up.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yes, I heard it! It must be the frogs! We can't let them escape!" Lysil shouted.
"Sprig, run!" Polly said, "And don't drop me!"
"I know! And I won't!" Sprig shouted as he continues to run, hearing the olms slithering far behind them and getting closer!
They barely made it out of the cave, but found themselves near the top of the ravine, even higher than the road.
"Aaaah!" Sprig screamed as he stopped near the edge.
"Uh... how do we get down?" Polly asked.
"I want to say "jump" but it's too high!" Sprig shouted before a rush of wind blew behind him!
"There you are!" Lysil and Angwin shouted, towering over Sprig and Polly!
"I don't think we have a choice!" Sprig said, jumping off.
They landed on the ground and saw black. Next thing they knew, they were getting licked. Sprig slowly opened his eyes and saw a familiar wolf.
"Anne?" He mumbled.
Anne shifted back and stood up.
"Hop Pop! I found them!"
Sprig looked to his side and saw Polly was alright too, her bucket was broken but she was still alright.
"I'm coming!" Hop Pop said as he cracked Bessie's reigns to make her faster, "Kids, oh thank Frog!"
Hop Pop stopped the Fwagon as Anne picked up Sprig and Polly.
"We were worried sick! I'm glad we found you guys before something found us." Anne said.
"Actually…" Polly said before pointing up to the edge where they jumped.
"We can discuss this later." Hop Pop said, "Let's just get out of here."
Anne nodded as she walked inside with Sprig and Polly, allowing Hop Pop to get them moving away from the ravine. Once they were out, they stopped on the side of the road.
"Why the stop, Hop Pop?" Anne asked.
"Just a small moment to let Bessie rest. The trip is the most stressed on the transportation instead of the travelers." Hop Pop said, pulling out some berries for Bessie.
"Okay, what happened in that ravine?" Anne asked, "You two look scared."
"Well, we weren't exactly ALONE in that ravine." Sprig said, holding a cup of tea.
"We ran into something BIG when we found a cave, looking for a way out." Polly said, sitting in a new, backup bucket.
"What? What was it?" Anne asked, "Was it Sasha coming back for revenge?"
"Nope, not her but something just as bad." Polly said.
"What was it?"
"Some large serpent thing that was conjoined twins, but they were blind." Sprig said as he pointed to his eyes.
"Olms." Hop Pop said, "No one has seen one in nearly a thousand years."
"Olms? What are they?" Anne asked.
"Olms are one of the oldest living species in Amphibia but most are said to dwell underground." Hop Pop said, "I can't imagine why they would be in a cave this close to the surface."
"Me either but I don't want to know." Polly said as she shook her head. "Running into those creeps once was enough!"
"Yeah, let's get going as soon as possible." Anne said, "That place is dangerous."
"Agreed." Sprig said as Hop Pop finished feeding Bessie.
"Alright, kids, let's keep going."
With a small crack of the reins, Bessie began to move again at a steady pace as the rain clouds were clearing up to reveal it was now nighttime.
"You know, we really haven't had a moment to enjoy the beauty of this place." Anne said.
"Yeah, even if everything could kill us, you gotta love how beautiful the world can be as well." Sprig said.
"You know, I've always wondered... why is the moon red?"
"Red? You mean your moon isn't red?" Sprig asked her.
"Not every night. It's mostly bright white and varies from that but red is sort of rare. It's just surprising to see that you guys have a red moon every night." Anne said as she pointed up to the moon.
"Ever want to go to the moon?" Sprig asked.
"One day, it would be pretty cool." Anne said, "Probably won't happen though."
So, I can't guarantee I'll be able to update every day. For those that have been long time readers, might remember that I lost my grandmother about a year and a half ago. That was my mothers mom, my dads mom on the other hand spent last week in a hospital and I've spent the past couple days at her house to take care of her while she fully recovers, I've been near my computer for a combined total of four hours in the last week and a half. I hope you understand why I can't update every day, and I say this because I've had people that clearly don't care if my family is going through something, they just want to see chapters. Follow, Favorite, and Review for more.