Chapter 13:

Scorpileo's Venom

SMACK!

"Huh?! Wha?!"

Sprig abruptly regained consciousness when he was suddenly slapped across the face. The first things that he saw when he opened his eyes were the worried faces of his grandfather sitting besides him and his little sister standing on his chest.

"Sprig!" Both Hop Pop and Polly shouted out his name, relieved to see him awake.

"Hop Pop? Polly?"

"Oh thank goodness that you're okay!" Hop Pop exclaimed.

"Yeah! I was this close to singing right in your ears if the slap didn't work!" Polly said, as she jumped off from her brother's chest.

The Plantar boy sat up from the ground and was immediately hit by a wave of pain located in his head. "Urgh… My head…" he groaned, rubbing his aching head with his hand. "It feels like I got hit by something really hard…"

"Well, what do you expect from a slap like that?" Polly said.

"No, no. I think it came from something else before that…" Sprig shook his head. "Argh… Whatever it was, it really did a number on my head… Did we packed in some medicines for headaches? 'Cause I'm gonna go get some back in the fwagon…"

"Sprig," The grim-faced elderly frog spoke. "I'm afraid that we're not in the best kind of place to be doing that right now."

"Huh? Why not?" the boy asked, confused. It was only when he looked at his surroundings that he realized that they were not in the camp with the fwagon and Bessie. In fact, where they were currently set off quite a few alarms in his head.

Looking outside from underneath the hollow trunk of a large tree, surrounded by rafflesia, several frog skeletons can be found everywhere in the area located deep within the forest. Some of them had scattered across the ground. Others were hanged in the air, held by vines that somehow tied themselves onto the bones through the gaps. The sight of the unfortunate frogs' remains alone was unnerving enough. But to make matters worse, several parts of the area sported huge claw marks created by some sort of a large beast.

"W-what is all of this?! Where are we?!" Sprig asked.

"We're inside of that monster's lair, if I have to presume." Hop Pop answered.

"Monster?"

"That huge furry creature with the big maw, four eyes and the long tail stinger, remember?" Polly described the monster's appearance to her brother.

At the mention of the tail stinger, Sprig gasped, as he remembered everything that happened before he blacked out. He recalled that he and Anne split up to hunt for food at different parts of the forest, when he suddenly encountered a large, ferocious-looking creature eating some of the grubbles that they caught before it knocked him out cold.

"The Scorpileo!" he shouted.

"Ah! That's the name that I was searching for in this old noggin of mine!" Hop Pop said. "Indeed, it was the Scorpileo that snatched us away from camp and brought us into its corpse-riddled territory. I'm impressed that you recognized what it is, boy."

"Well, there's a reason, actually." Sprig said. He took another look around himself and noticed that they were one person short in the family. "Wait, where's Anne? Did she get caught too?"

"Luckily, she somehow went beneath the beast's notice." Hop Pop explained. "In fact, she arrived at the camp a little bit after it struck, presumably because she heard our screams of terror. The beast decided to leave her be instead of taking her with it as well."

"So, she's okay?"

Hop Pop nodded. "For now, at least. Here's hoping that Anne comes and saves us all before the monster eats us… Or she could easily run for her life and leave us to become part of its collection of rotting bones. I won't hold it against her and would even encourage her to save her own skin."

"Come on, Hop Pop! You know Anne would never abandon us like that!" Sprig reprimanded his grandfather.

"I know, Sprig, don't worry. I'm just pulling your leg, is all."

"Is now really a good time to be telling jokes?"

"When it serves to help you cope with facing your impending demise, yes!"

"Enough chitchatting!" Polly shouted. "In case you didn't know, the Scorpileo isn't around right now! Let's get off of our butts and skedaddle out of here before it comes back and we really become dinner!"

THUD!

Unfortunately for the Plantars, the Scorpileo signalled its swift return by landing front paws first in the middle of its territory, startling the family and causing them to close into each other for safety.

"What?! It came back already?!" Polly expressed her disbelief.

"I'm starting to believe that the Scorpileo might really be psychic!" Hop Pop exclaimed

With its four glowing eyes setting their sights on the three of them, the large predator slowly approached them while growling through its closed jaws. The Plantars responded to its approach by scooting backwards as much as they could, all while clinging to one another.

The Scorpileo then paused its approach, when its eyes detected something very small entering its lair from the side. Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop slowly followed the beast's gaze before their sights came upon a lone grubble crawling towards them very slowly.

Both the predator and its prey watched as the pastry-looking insect moved in-between them, completely unaware of the presence of the other beings in the area. Once the grubble reached the middle point between the two parties, the Scorpileo decided that it waited long enough and plunged its tail stinger down into the small insect, causing it to squeal in pain.

The Plantars yelped in fear from witnessing the grubble getting stabbed.

The Scorpileo lifted with its tail the skewered insect right up to its face, watching the grubble squirming around from the combination of trying to free itself from the stinger and its body reacting negatively to what was injected inside.

The beast lost interest in its victim and swung its tail to the side, sending the fatally-wounded grubble flying towards a nearby tree where it crashed and slid down across the bark, leaving a visible green splatter and trail.

The horrific scene further fuelled the family's terror, and it got even worse when the beast set its sights on them once more. Except it was not looking at the entire family, but rather at one member in particular. A small, purple tadpole who looked like a tasty appetizer before the main course.

"Uh, it's looking at me funny! I don't like it!" Polly exclaimed.

"Back off, beast!" Hop Pop yelled as he stepped in front of his granddaughter with his arms and legs spread apart to protect her in spite of his fright. "You might be too much for me to handle, but I'll be darned if I let you lay a single claw on any of my kids!"

The Scorpileo responded to Hop Pop's protective stand by roaring right in his face, trying to deter the elderly frog from standing in the way of its appetizer. Hop Pop maintained his footing regardless, fully intended to lose a limb or two for Polly's safety.

Before the monster could follow up on its threat, a small rock suddenly hit the side of its head. Turning his head towards that side, standing a small distance from it was a tall, green-clad boy who had just shot a pebble with his drawn slingshot.

"Hey, big guy!" Sprig shouted as he grabbed another rock from the ground and readied his weapon with it. "Get away from my family! Or else, have another taste of this!"

He shot the rock from his slingshot, striking the beast right on its snout. The Scorpileo shifted its aggression towards the boy, snarling at him as it turned itself towards him before lunging forward, its maw opening to catch the human boy with its fangs.

Sprig quickly jumped to the side to evade its attack. The monster repeated its previous action of turning itself towards the boy and lunging at him once more. Sprig dodged the attack the same way as last time. The Scorpileo went for him a third time, and the boy's response has gone unchanged.

That is, until he inadvertently tripped on one of the bones half-buried in the ground, when he took a step back after landing. With a yelp, he fell to the ground on his back, and just before he could recover, the Scorpileo reached him and pinned his whole body down with its paws, knocking the air out of the boy's lungs.

"SPRIG!" Both Hop Pop and Polly cried out his name, upon seeing him getting caught by the beast.

Sprig groaned as he struggled to free himself from the monster's hold, only managing to liberate his hands which he used to try and push its paws off of him. The Scorpileo watched the trapped boy trying and failing to slip out of its hold for a few seconds, before it lowered its head down while opening its maw to get a bit out of the human boy.

Sprig stopped his struggles upon seeing the beast's fangs and mandibles getting closer and closer to his face, with saliva dripping down on him. He began hyperventilating, his mind going haywire as it seemed like he was about to reach death's door once the Scorpileo's fangs touch him.

But just as he was about to meet his end, sparks of electricity had formed around his hands before extending over to the beast's paws.

Feeling a lightning shock in its front feet, the Scorpileo shouted with alarm, jumping off of the boy and landing several feet back. It proceeded to quickly drag its paws against the dirt in an attempt to get rid of the shock.

The human boy sat up and looked at the distressed beast in confusion. He then raised his hands up to his face and saw electric sparks travelling around his hands before dissipating.

Once he realized what had happened a moment ago, his lips slowly formed a grin, and he began to chuckle upon seeing clear proof of his hidden power. "Ha… Hahaha! I knew it!"

He looked back at the monster, who seemed to have managed to bring relief to his paws before it set its sights back at the boy, growling at him. Full of confidence in his abilities, the grinning boy rose up from the ground and adopted an offensive stance.

"Okay, big guy! You better back off before I have to teach you why you shouldn't mess with me or my family!" he warned it.

The Scorpileo responded by roaring at him.

"You asked for it!"

Forming his hands into fists, he concentrated on building up energy within his hands until he felt some sort of tingle in his palms, which served as an indication that his attack was ready.

"Take this! Magic Lightning Fingers! Activate!"

He thrusted his arms forward with wide-open hands, as he unleashed the awesome power of lightning from his fingertips that he was finally able to harness during his time of need, striking down the ferocious monster with the might of a lightning god!

… Or so he wished. In reality, the moment that he initiated his attack, nothing came out of it.

The beast tilted its head in confusion, wondering what the boy was trying to accomplish.

"Uh… Huh?" Sprig expressed his own confusion, looking at his hands that had not done anything remotely close to shooting out lightning from his fingers.

"Sprig! What the heck are you doing?!" Polly shouted from a distance.

"Uh, I…! I was trying to…! I thought that I…!" The boy stumbled upon his words, pulling his hands back as he looked down on them in sheer confusion and panic. "But it worked a second ago! How come it didn't work this time?! What in the world am I doing wro-!"

He was unable to finish his sentence when the beast swung its tail at him, sending him flying and crashing into a slope. His body rolled down until it reached the even ground, the boy groaning in pain as he struggled to get back up.

Once it deemed that he was no longer a threat, it turned its attention towards the remain members of the family. Hop Pop and Polly recognized that they were next.

"Run, Polly!" Hop Pop told his granddaughter before he ran towards the beast and leaped forward. Once he grabbed onto its face, he repeatedly bashed its snout with his fists with all the strength that he could muster, which ultimately did little to get it to flinch.

The Scorpileo violently shook its head to get the elderly frog off of its face, sending him flying some distance away. When it turned its attention towards the purple tadpole, the little one was in the middle of hopping away for dear life. It only needed to propelled itself right in her way to stop her in her tracks.

"AHH!" Polly cried as she hurriedly turned the other way and tried to flee from the beast. However, the Scorpileo slammed its paw on her to pin her down to the ground. "Nggh! Let go of me, you ugly abomination to frogkind!"

"Polly!" Sprig shouted, trying his hardest to get back up and come to his sister's aid, only for his body to fail him as he collapsed back down to the ground.

The monster pierced the purple tadpole's bow with one of its claw and picked her up from the ground that way. Polly tried to wiggle herself out of its hold to no avail, and to her inconvenience, her bow decided not to detach itself from her during that moment.

Sprig and Hop Pop helplessly watched in horror, as the beast moved Polly right above its opened jaws, ready to drop her at any moment to satisfy its hunger.

"Hey! Furball!"

An unknown voice alerted the beast of their presence, as it paused itself from trying to eat Polly. The monster turned its head towards the source of the voice.

At the same time, the Plantars all looked towards the direction of the voice as well, and they saw a tall person with familiar bush-like brown hair standing at a distance.

"ANNE!" They all shouted out the name of the newly-arrived human girl, relieved to see her coming to their rescue.

The Scorpileo growled at Anne, observing her to see what kind of tricks that she was going to pull.

"Yeah, that's right! Keep your eyes on me!" Anne taunted the beast. "'Cause I got something to show you!"

Once she made sure that the monster was looking at her intently, she took a deep breath in preparation for her next plan of attack.

"Okay, Anne… You can do this…" she muttered to herself. "You managed to track down that thing… You set up a trap for it a minute ago… Now all that's left to do is…" She gulped. "… The dance…"

After a moment of psyching herself up, with fists tightened and cheeks puffed, Anne performed her next action that, in theory, should bait the beast into falling to her trap.

… By awkwardly hopping in place on alternating foot with her body completely stiffed during the whole process.

Sprig, Polly and Hop Pop blankly stared at her. Even the Scorpileo had a look of confusion upon watching her. None of them had any clue as to what the human girl was trying to accomplish.

"Anne," Hop Pop spoke. "What in heaven's name are you doing? Are you having some kind of episode?"

"No, Hop Pop!" she corrected him while still doing a poor excuse of a dance. "Don't you see that I'm trying to bait that thing by doing the dance that you guys do while hunting?"

"That's supposed to be the Plantar hunting dance?!" Sprig exclaimed, flabbergasted.

After barely a minute, what little interest that the beast had towards Anne's half-hearted showing had completely faded, turning its attention back towards the snack still hanging on its claw.

"Wait! No, no, no! Don't look away! I'm not done yet!" The panicked Anne implored the monster.

The Scorpileo ignored her plea, as it was too preoccupied with finishing its task in trying to get the screaming tadpole to fall into its mouth.

"Argh! Come on!" Anne stopped dancing once it was clear that it had no effect on it. "Why isn't the dance working?!"

"That's because you're not putting your heart into it, Anne!" shouted Sprig who was barely able to sit up from the ground before resting his back on the slope behind. "Ngh…! Darn, that really smarts…!"

"I-I'm trying my best here! What else do I have to do?!"

"Are you listening to nature's music?" Hop Pop asked.

"What music?! What am I supposed to be on the lookout for?!"

"AAAHH!" Polly continued to scream for dear life, as her bow finally slipped off the Scorpileo's claw, only for her to barely grab on to it right before she fell. That prompted the beast to increase the intensity of shaking the purple tadpole off. "Anne, quit making excuses and do something already! I can't hang on for much longer!"

"POLLY!" Anne shouted in horror from seeing the baby girl getting closer and closer to become food for the monster. She furiously scratched her head, trying to think of another solution with what little time that she had left. "Aaargh! What am I supposed to do?!"

Sprig looked at his friend struggling to figure out a way to beat the monster. WIth the boy himself too injured to do anything about the situation as quickly as possible, and his grandfather too weak to stop the monster by himself, they could only rely on Anne to put a stop to it. And the only way for her to do so, Sprig thought, was to do the dance properly. All she need was to get rid of the doubt within her.

"Anne! You have to dance!" Sprig yelled.

"I did! But it's just not-!"

"It wasn't working because you think the dance is too silly! That's really the only reason!"

"I…! I mean…!" Anne stumbled on her words trying to explain her apparent inability to do the dance.

"Anne, I get it." Sprig said, understanding her hesitation. "You're not the first person who thinks our dance looks stupid. A lot of people told us that they wouldn't be caught dead doing it. Believe me when I say that I know where you're coming from."

"Sprig, I…"

"But with all things considered, we Plantars don't care how weird our dance looks to some people, because it helped us survive in the wild for generations. And it doesn't exist just to help us with the hunt, it also serves to save ourselves and others from harm's way. And right now, Polly needs saving! So please! Save her!"

Anne widened her eyes in realization after hearing what the boy had to say.

He was right. What would be the point of her staying apprehensive of doing the silly hunting dance if people's lives are at stake? She was so embarrassed about it that she forgot that the beauty of dancing came from expressing one's self without a care in the world. The Plantar hunting dance was nothing different. So really, when it really matters, Anne should not be ashamed because she too is a member of the Plantar family.

The human girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as she steeled herself for another attempt at the dance. "Guys… Tell me what I need to do."

"Believe in yourself, Anne!" Sprig said.

"Listen to nature's rhythm all around you!" Hop Pop pitched in.

"AAHH! Let your body do its thing!" Polly contributed in spite of being inches away from slipping off.

"Believe in myself… Listen to nature's music… Let my body move with the flow… And dance like nobody's watching…" Anne repeated the family's advice.

She slid her foot to the side, crouched down with knees bent and palms rested on the ground in front of her, and focused her hearing.

Since it was still vague as to what nature's music was supposed to sound like, she could only hear noises from a large variety of sources around her, the biggest one being Polly's scream of terror. The various noises sounded so chaotic and unsynchronized to her that she almost felt that it would be impossible to figure out what exactly that she was supposed to be listening to, especially since it was the first time that she ever tried it.

Then, to her surprise, she heard the drums. The first noise that stood out to her. She focused her hearing on that. Then, from there, she let different noises, one after the other, entered her ears, all of them keeping the rhythm provided by the drums.

From dew falling and splashing onto mushrooms, to a bee-woodpecker pecking against the tree trunk, to even a beetle somehow beating its appendages against a piece of wood. All following the initial rhythm, which escalated into natural harmony.

Anne found herself bopping her head to the rhythm. Her body was slowing moving on its own, as if it was driven by the music of nature flowing through it. She could now feel nature's very essence fuelling her very being.

Once she became familiar with the atmosphere around her, Anne began to perform the Plantar hunting dance, by shaking her butt around as the starting act. And from there, she let nature take control of her body.

The Scorpileo felt an unknown energy coming from behind it, causing it stop shaking Polly off its claw. It turned its head around to bare witness to Anne doing a completely different kind of dance from before, as evident of the rhythmic heat wave coming out of her body.

With the beast completely distracted, Polly took the opportunity to finally swing away from it and land on the ground safely, before she quickly hopped right into Hop Pop's arms.

The Scorpileo had not noticed that its prey had fled from its grasp, too curious by the human girl's hypnotic dance.

"I am the leaves…" Anne spoke in a trance-like tone, her body swaying from side to side while her arms jabbed the air like a mantis. "I am the morning dew…" She then rose her upper body up before leaning it down to the ground and slamming her fists in front of her. Her confidence in her ability became heightened, and she finally felt like the kind of person that she was trying to become during the whole ordeal.

"I am… The hunter!"

Anne took it up a notch by doing a series of different body movement, such as flopping on the ground like a fish, jumping backwards then forward, slapping her cheeks while her lips formed an O-shape, walking in place as she moved her arms up and down in alternation, slammed her face against a tree trunk, and so on.

The Scorpileo stared at the dancing girl, intrigued enough as to put its entire focus solely on her, unaware that the everything around the two became a blur.

The Plantars watched as Anne's dancing managed to attract the beast's full attention in a matter that showed that the Plantar hunting dance was doing its intended purpose.

"It's working! She's nailing the dance!" Sprig shouted, overjoyed that his teachings actually paid off.

Looking over at the human girl and noting how her take on the dance seemed to have a bigger effect than usual, he himself became enticed by her without being aware of it, almost as if the dance had an effect on him as well.

"And… She looks so beautiful doing it…"

From that point forward, the Scorpileo became completely hypnotized by Anne, its eyes continuing to follow her movements endlessly, and its body swaying side to side in conjunction with her movements as well. It remained distracted until Anne suddenly kicked some dirt right into its face.

The beast snapped out of its hypnotized state, and it was quickly replaced by a state of rage towards the human girl. Growling, the monster lunged at her with its maw wide open to sink its fangs onto the seemingly unsuspecting girl.

Just as it was about to reach her, Anne suddenly bent forward, narrowly dodging its attack as it ended up leaping over her.

And right into the large trap that Anne set up a while ago: A giant hole covered by leaves. The beast caterwauled as it fell through the trap hole.

Anne's dance continued uninterrupted, the girl unaware that she succeeded in accomplishing the final step to the Plantars' way of the hunt.

The Plantars all cheered while pumping their fists in the air. "Woo! We're saved!" Polly shouted.

"Anne, you did it!" Sprig said, as he recovered just enough to barely stand up from the ground.

"Huh? What?" Anne snapped out of her trance and realized that the Scorpileo was nowhere to be seen. Looking behind her, she took notice of the giant hole that was no longer covered by leaves. She leaned her head over the hole and saw the giant beast stuck at the bottom.

"I… I did it?" she asked herself in disbelief which lasted for a second before the results dawned on her. "Woohoo! I really did it! Danced right in your face!"

The beast growled up at her before it began to climb up the hole with relative ease.

"Oh boy! Time to go, guys!" Anne quickly told the family, seeing that there was no time to celebrate her victory.

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Polly shouted.

"Anne, give Sprig a hand!" Hop Pop instructed her, as he began to flee the area with his granddaughter in his arms. "He might still be winded by that monster's attack!"

"On it!" Anne complied. She quickly ran up to the human boy to give him support. "You okay, dude?"

"I think so…" Sprig replied, holding the side of his ribs that previously took the blunt of the beast's tail attack. "I don't think I can run fast, though."

"Here. Put your arm around my shoulders."

The boy followed her instructions and placed his arm over her shoulders, while still clutching his side with the other hand. Both of them began to move as fast as they could and follow Hop Pop and Polly from behind, hoping that they could flee fast enough before the beast could climb out of the hole.

They moved past the border of the lair and into the dense part of the forest, when Sprig suddenly remembered one important thing. "Hold on, Anne! We need to go back!"

"Are you nuts, dude?!" Anne looked at him as if he was talking crazy. "That thing is still back there! We need to move before it can get out and catch up to us!"

"That's just it! The Scorpileo's got something that I need!" Sprig explained.

"What are you talking about?!"

"The stinger venom! It's one of the ingredients for Maddie's cure!"

Anne widened her eyes in shock. "For real?" she asked. She received a nod from him as an answer.

Anne turned her head back towards the beast's lair, where the Scorpileo was nearly out of the hole. Turning Sprig back to normal was always important for the family, especially for him, but if they valued their own lives, then getting the venom from the Scorpileo was just asking to get killed, and none of them were in any condition to fend it off.

"Sprig, do you think the Plantar hunting dance works the second time against that thing?" she asked.

"W-well, I haven't really tried using it twice against the same creature before." he replied to her with uncertainty.

"Then we're not risking it! Sorry, buddy, but unless you wanna get mauled trying to get the ingredient, our lives take top priority right now! We need to keep moving!"

"But…!" Sprig tried to argue with her, but even he could not deny that coming back for the venom would be suicide. The thought of leaving without getting the ingredient was painful for him, but if he wanted to stay in one piece, he had no other choice.

Just as he was about to consider abandoning his goal, looking to the side, he noticed a tree with a noticeable green splatter on its bark and a trail that went down towards the ground. He had his eyes follow the trail, where he spotted the body of a grubble, sporting a huge wound with green stains around it. He recognized the grubble being the one that the Scorpileo had mercilessly stabbed with its tail stinger and tossed aside.

Then, he remembered an important tidbit from Maddie's notes about the venom. One that would spare them the trouble of getting what they needed.

Some time had passed, and Hop Pop and Polly emerged out of the thick part of the woods and into another one of the wide-open areas of the forest. The elderly frog stopped running and bent down, trying to catch his breath from running as fast as he could with his old legs.

"Hah…! Hah…! These lungs of mine have definitely seen better days…!" he panted.

"Did we lose that monster?" Polly asked.

"Hah…! I'm not sure…!" Hop Pop turned around to see if he could spot the large form of the monster behind them. Thankfully, no such creature could be found anywhere. However, he realized that two members of the family were missing within the immediate vicinity. "Wait a minute… I don't see Anne or Sprig anywhere! I mean, it is a given that they might be moving a bit slower than us, but…"

"Oh no… You don't think that thing caught up to them back there, do you?" Polly asked worriedly.

"Oh dear lord…!" The thought of his two grandchildren getting easily captured by the Scorpileo just because they were under a handicap in terms of speed scared the elderly frog out of his wits.

Polly jumped out of her grandfather's hold and hopped a few feet towards the back. "ANNE! SPRIG! CAN YOU HEAR ME BACK THERE?!" she shouted as loud as she could.

"… Loud and clear, dude!" They were taken by surprised from hearing Anne's voice responding to her.

Anne and Sprig popped out from the bushes some distance away from Hop Pop and Polly, and they proceeded to slowly make their way towards the rest of the family to rejoin them.

"Oh thank goodness!" Hop Pop let out a sigh of relief. "The Plantars are all safe and sound!"

"Yeah, for now." Polly said, as she looked behind the two humans for any sign of the beast. "That thing still isn't chasing you guys or anything, is it?"

"We really didn't notice." Sprig replied. "And I don't think we want to stick around and find out either."

"You're right about that, boy." Hop Pop concurred. He then let out an exhausted breath, as he sat down on the ground. "Hah… Just give me a minute to catch my breath, if you don't mind…"

"I think we all need a bit of a rest here." Anne said, looking at the boy with his still around her shoulders. "Carrying this guy around this far really takes a lot out of you."

"Thanks for that, by the way, Anne." Sprig expressed his gratitude, as he removed his arm from her. "I think I'm good enough to go the rest of the way from here."

"Alright, but don't be shy if you want to lean on me some more some time later." Anne said. She received a nod from him in return.

Since they were currently in a moment of respite, Anne felt that it was just enough time to ask him about what he did back there that puzzled her. "Mind telling us what's the deal with the grubble that you got in your hands there?"

"This?" Sprig looked down at the body of the grubble that he carried under his arm. He picked it up when they were trying to flee from the Scorpileo, but he did not get to the chance to explain his actions to the Thai-American girl.

"Oh yeah! I didn't notice it until you pointed that out, Anne." Polly said, intrigued by the grubble. "It looks dead. And it's got this weird stain that definitely raises a few bells, if you ask me."

"Sprig, isn't that the grubble that the Scorpileo killed right before our eyes a while ago?" Hop Pop asked. "If you're thinking that we should eat it, then I advise against it. I'm sure that it was poisoned from the stinger and consuming it will do more harm than good."

"Of course we're not eating it." Sprig said, lifting the grubble's body up to show the family. "I didn't have time to talk about this, but guys… I finally found the first ingredient."

"The first ingredient?"

"Apparently, it's the Scorpileo's Venom." Anne said, as she recalled what Sprig told her while they were escaping from the monster. "It's one of the main ingredients for the cure to turn him back into a frog."

"Oh! I think I remember reading about it in Maddie's notes!" Polly remarked.

"The Scorpileo's Venom, eh?" Hop Pop scratched his chin, absorbing the information given to him by the kids. "But what does the grubble have anything to do with it? If we're talking about the venom, then I would've expected a liquid substance instead."

"Yeah, what's up with that, Sprig?" Anne asked.

"Well, it doesn't have to be the pure liquid venom that we need to get." Sprig explained. "According to what Maddie wrote, anything that got inflicted by the venom will do as a material for the cure. And since this grubble here definitely got poisoned by the venom, it'll work just fine as is."

"Oh! That explains it!" Anne exclaimed. "I wouldn't have guessed that we can do it this way!"

"So does that mean that we're finally getting somewhere with your magic human transformation?" Polly asked.

"I think so." Sprig nodded, smiling as the first step into getting himself back to normal has been taken, meaning that his desire was less of a pipe dream than initially thought. "I'm really glad…"

"I'm glad for you, dude." Anne said, as she gently patted her friend on the back to show that she shared the same sentiment. "One down, six more to go, right?"

"Right."

Hop Pop stood up while grunting, patting the dirt off of his pants. "Ok, kids. I think we've rested enough. Let's keep going and get back to Bessie and the fwagon, then we can hightail it out of here before we invite any more danger to ourselves."

"Wait, what about food?" Polly asked, remembering the whole reason why they stayed in the forest in the first place.

"We'll grab anything that we can find on the way there." Hop Pop replied. "No time to do our usual hunting tricks, so you can forget about trying to catch anything more than a grubble, I'm afraid."

"I guess it's better than nothing."

"Right. Let's get a move on, people! No time to waste!" Hop Pop began to move towards the direction of the fwagon, confident that his sense of direction was good enough that he could tell where the fwagon might be. Polly followed him closely from behind.

Just as Sprig was about to follow suit, his best friend's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Hey, Sprig?" Anne spoke. "About what happened between us earlier today…"

"Hm? What about it?" Sprig asked, looking at the human girl.

"I just wanna say I'm sorry." she apologized while looking at the ground in shame.

"Anne?"

"You were trying to teach me how you guys usually tackle this kind of stuff, and I just… blew you off because I didn't believe in it. I thought that this whole thing was too disgusting and stupid for me, and… I might have hurt your feelings telling you all of that."

"Hey, it's okay. It's water under the bridge." he reassured her. "I did say that I get where you're coming from, right? I'm not gonna lie and say that the Plantar way isn't weird."

"Still, that doesn't change the fact that I was being a huge butt about it." Anne insisted. "I thought that I could do just fine without it and rely on what I've learned back in my world. But when you guys got taken by the Scorpileo, I realized just how wrong I was."

Anne turned her head behind her towards the direction of the Scorpileo's lair and where they last saw the beast. "I couldn't figure out what to do when I lost track of you guys, and none of the things that I've learned back home did me any good. I was completely lost, until I got some help."

"From who?" he asked.

"A stress-induced hallucination of your floating frog head, that's all." she replied like it was a matter of fact.

"Oh. Does… Does that mean that you snapped?"

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe."

The boy looked at their surroundings. "Uhh… Is my floating head still around?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Oh yeah. Right over here." She pointed her finger next to her, which looked like a whole bundle of nothing to a sane person. "Not sure for how long he's gonna stick around, though. Right now, he's kinda looking at us funny, like he's waiting for something to happen."

"Uh… huh…" Sprig slowly nodded, unsure how he was supposed to process that piece of information. "Okay, can we get back to what you're trying to tell me?"

"Right, right." Anne said, realizing that she was going off-track by talking about the existence of the Sprig head hallucination. "Anyways, with some help, I finally tried to apply the Plantar hunting way that you were trying to teach me, and it really worked! I managed to track you guys down by eating the dirt, used my surroundings to set up the trap for the Scorpileo, became one with nature and finally did the dance to trick that thing and saved you guys!"

"And you looked amazing doing it." Sprig commented, feeling the need to mention it to her.

"Thanks, buddy." Anne smiled. "But I couldn't have done any of this without you. So really, you deserve way more than that."

She then pulled her friend into a hug. The boy responded in kind by wrapping his free arm around her waist.

"Thank you, Sprig. For helping me when I need it most."

Sprig smiled warmly upon hearing her expressing her appreciation to him. A warmth feeling was bubbling up from within, when he realized that he was finally able to help her in a meaningful way since that dreadful night at Toad Tower. It was not much, but it was better than nothing.

"Anytime, Anne. Anytime." he said, intending to do a lot more of that for his best friend.

The two humans broke off from the hug. "Alright! Let's go follow the others on the way back already!" Anne said.

"Right!" Sprig said, as they both turned themselves towards the direction of the fwagon where Hop Pop and Polly were going to.

Until they realized that they had no idea where the fwagon was located, and they lost track of the others.

"Uh… I think we might have talked for way too long than we should have." Sprig sheepishly noted.

"Yep. Looks like it." Anne nodded, sharing the same feeling as the boy. "Well, guess there's only one thing to do when we're lost."

"Track them down the Plantar way?"

"You betcha!" Anne smiled. She picked up a chunk of the dirt beneath her and threw it in her mouth where she proceeded to chew on it for some sort of hint. "Hmmm… Hey, did you know that Polly was hoarding some biscuits on her?"

"She was? That little sneak…"

"Well, it's what helped me track you guys down in the first place. And surprisingly enough, looks like this time's no different, because she's still leaving behind a trail of crumbs." She began to walk towards one direction as revealed by the dirt in her mouth that she proceeded to spit out afterwards. "Let's get moving, dude!"

"Right behind you!" Sprig said.

He spent a short amount of time watching Anne lead the way with full confidence in her abilities. He could only smile proudly upon seeing that she took his lessons to heart.

Despite having gone through a very rough time in the forest, what with them having exhausted their supplies and encountered the Scorpileo in very poor circumstances, as well as his failed attempt at bringing out his magic powers, he felt that they made a huge progress today in terms of getting to certain objectives.

They finally acquired their very first core ingredient to the cure for Sprig's human transformation, even if it was by accident. And not only that, but Sprig was able to help Anne in his own way, even if it might not have done much to get her to move on from what happened that dreadful night.

And as a bonus, he bear witness to the culmination of what he taught her in the form of her doing the hunting dance that she succeeded with flying colours, even more so when he remarked that her version of the dance was way more effective than what any of the other family members could do. His admiration of the human girl continued to grow, with seemingly no end in sight.

"You really are amazing, Anne…" he whispered. "… And still look so beautiful…"

He then blinked a few times and shook his head. "Whoa… Did I really just said that? Huh… I guess her dance did way more than confuse the Scorpileo. I wonder how long does the effect last…?"

End of Chapter

Hey, everyone. HiddenKurogawa here with a few things to say. First off, sorry that it took me more than a month to post as new chapter, since at this point, you guys were expecting the story to be a weekly thing based on how often I updated the story. The reason for me taking this long to post a new chapter is because I kinda hit a burnout from writing each chapter and posting it once a week, so I took a bit of a rest.

There's also the fact that, during my downtime, I realized that I haven't really took advantage of the Human Sprig concept as much as I would like, at least this early on, so my creativity kinda took a hit and I'm still reeling in from that.

Also, I might have spent a huge chunk of my free time playing Like a Dragon: Ishin. It's a good game that's part of a great series of game, by the way.

Anyway, that's my explanation as to why it took me this long to write the latest chapter. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to go back and update the story weekly, but I'll try my best, assuming that everything goes well.

One more thing that I would like to share is something that you might have noticed last chapter, but I forgot to mention it until now. There are gonna be some events from the show that I'm going to skip in this story, such as The Ballad of Hopediah Plantar episode, mainly because, since the story revolves around Sprig being human, I find that the concept would do little to do a fresh take on some of the events, or I couldn't think of anything big and different that would help make it a unique experience. Sorry to say, but that's the approach that I'm going for the story early on. On the bright side, it might help me get to the parts that I want to write much quicker.

That's all that I want to say for now. Feel free to comment, criticize, follow and/or fave this fanfic, though I would greatly appreciate these. Might even help me with the motivation, but who knows. Until next time.