Hunter & Hunted
Far away from Newtopia, the capital city of Amphibia, a lonely cabin stood in the woods. This hunting lodge had been built a long time ago by a hunt's obsessed toad, using it as a refuge between his expeditions. Away from any undesired attention, the cabin was also well hidden within the environment; its roof and walls being covered by vegetation. If you didn't know it was there, you couldn't find it.
For this reason, the cabin had now become the last refuge of the same toad who commissioned it. Having lost his fortune, the one who was, once, the most famous hunter in all of Amphibia, now reduced to the greatest humiliation any professional hunter could endure.
To hunt solely to sustain himself.
"Gentlefrogs," Hoffanio said, looking around, every toad and newt hunter who had invited looking at him with eyes full of concern, "I am quite pleased you've accepted my invitations."
"It's not every day the former greatest hunter of the whole continent sends you a personal invitation." commented a newt with a posh accent and wearing fancy clothes. Hoffanio knew him to be Lizanio Uptail, an aristocrat from Newtopia who had become quite known as an upstart 'gentleman hunter'.
"Plus, the sum you sent us alongside the letter was quite convincing," another, a plebeian toad with crooked teeth, said while smiling, holding a bag of golden coins he received from Hoffanio.
The last remaining items of his fortune, the greatest hunter of all thought with anger. Yet, he would gladly give it all away, if it could help him get what he wanted above anything else: vengeance.
"Makes me wonder, though," another hunter commented, "What if we simply kept the money and didn't show up?"
"You would have lived the rest of your very short lives in fear of the moment when I would have finally got you." Hoffanio responded, with no hesitation nor joking in her voice. "Just like any of our quarries."
"Though talk: none of us are easy to track or kill."
"It would have been difficult, true, but not impossible." Hoffanio replied, "And as you may know already, I have nothing left to lose."
"And you're the only one to blame. You tried to sell some kind of "new creatures" to private collectors and menageries all over Amphibia, engaging in many contracts with investors to finance your expedition. And yet, you couldn't keep up your word. After that fiasco, your family's fortune got seized and Newtopia's high society turned its back on you." Lizanio said with a scoffing look, before adding with a mocking smile "Some people even say you made those creatures up."
"I didn't-" Hoffanio started to yell before he could compose himself, taking a deep breath. "Those…creatures," he spat the word with disgust "not only do they exist, but I was able to capture them. Unfortunately, some frogs from the Valley helped them escape, scattering my guards and leaving me unable to honor my debts."
"Then, why did you invite all of us here?" the crooked-teeth toad asked.
"Because, as much as it hurts me to say it, all of you are among the greatest hunters in Amphibia, excluding me of course. And while we may not be friends, we all share the same drive and personality of the hunter. For this reason, I want to offer you a one-in-a-lifetime chance: you help me capture those creatures, and we equally share the profit. You have the manpower, and I have the knowledge: in short, we need each other."
"I can't speak for the others, but I don't think I need any help to hunt my prey!" A female newt hunter with a haughty expression replied.
"That's where you're wrong," Hoffanio retorted with a cruel smile, as he remembered his previous confrontations with the creatures. "These beasts are unlike any other creatures I've ever faced before. They're agile, hardy, and strong. And more importantly they are smart and dangerously so." The hunter said with a low voice, "They're smart enough to set up traps and strategies. Intelligent enough to cooperate proactively when facing an opponent. I personally challenged them on two occasions, and on both times, they managed to turn the table on me. No hunter can fight them on his own, lest they be defeated and suffer humiliation like I was. For this reason, I called you."
The other hunters looked each other, before a couple of them spoke again:
"None of us seems to be looking for the exit," Lizanio pointed out.
"I'm in." The female newt nodded, "You may have had my curiosity when you sent me that letter, but now, you have my attention Mr. Von Froung."
"I never walked away from a challenge in my life, and I'm not going to start now." The toad from before smirked in anticipation.
"Then it's settled," Hoffanio smirked as well, "Welcome to my hunting party! I promise you it will be the most exciting hunt any of you may experience in their lives…"
Neither Hoffanio, nor any of his 'guests', witnessed a part of the cabin's roof lowering due to the weight of a muscular, dull green frog with many tattoos on his skin, silently listening to his plans…
(…)
"Secure those pegs well, Sprig!" James warned as he and Jacob were helping set up the tents. "If the wind picks up again tonight, the tents will fly away like twigs."
"Okie-dokie, James!" The frog boy replied, while Jacob stopped for a second, as he gazed over the camp they set up near a large swamp, among colossal mangrove trees and strange, reddish-colored flowers that emitted strong pungent odors. His gaze fell on Marcy, the dark-haired nerd girl sitting on a log with Sasha and the large panda plushy they had worked together on as a gift to her, and she was smiling. Just by looking at her, the boy lost himself in his thoughts.
"Jacob? Jacob!" James touched his bro's shoulder, suddenly (and cruelly) bringing him back to reality.
"Huh? What's wrong, James? Do I need to do something?"
"We are almost done here," the British boy replied, "But you've been acting…erratically, ever since this morning. Does something bother you?"
"Actually…" he hesitated, giving one more glance to Marcy. James' eyes widened, as he noticed it.
"Oh, were you thinking about her? Are you worried she may not like the gift we made for her?"
"No! I mean, she obviously loves it, just…I am still worried about the things she said to Anne and Amelia. How could she have thought we wanted to exclude her?"
"If you're so curious, why don't you ask her?"
"Sprig!" Jacob called him out, "Marcy's been through a lot, we can't just walk in and force her through those issues just now that she had just returned to her usual self. It'll be like rubbing salt on an open wound!"
"Wait, you think that could kill her?!" Sprig jumped back, suddenly alarmed.
"No, that's just…one of our world's sayings." James facepalmed, remembering the issues Amphibians had with salt, "It means to bring someone unnecessary pains, like hurting a wound to slow its healing."
"Oh! Oh yeah, that would be bad." The young frog replied, realizing he was falling into his old habit of openly speaking his mind. Still, something about the situation didn't feel right: how did Jacob expect to resolve his problem with Marcy, if he refused to talk with her? Sprig may have been naive, but surely, he wasn't stupid.
He sent a quick glance to James, hoping for his intervention, only for the silver-haired boy to shrug and shake his head slightly. The message was clear: drop the issue, it's not worth it.
With a small sigh, Sprig turned around and once again focused on his work, silently hoping that the teenage life of frogs wouldn't be as complicated as the humans' ones…
"Alright, kids!" Hop Pop called out with Felicia to his side, as they carried a large tray with a covering lid toward the 'table'. "Dinner's ready!"
"Whoo-hoo!" Anne announced, as everyone gathered around her.
"Yeah!"
"About time: I am starving!"
"I'm so hungry I'd eat a full snail!"
"MEEP!" Bessie and Liptea jerked at once, as Amelia turned toward them.
"Figure of speech, girlies! I wasn't speaking seriously!"
"Bri-brum!"
"Fine! I'm so hungry I could eat a ton of apples, does that sound better?"
"Bri!"
"Now hold onto your butts!" Hop Pop placed the tray on the table, his hand moving to remove the lid, to reveal under it…a single stick of wood. "Bam! Stick surprise!"
"What?!" Sasha protested, "Is this a joke?"
"Hop Pop, this isn't food!"
"But I didn't tell you what the surprise is."
Everyone gasped excitedly, only for Sasha to notice the expression on Felicia's face, and realize the harsh, cold truth.
"There's no surprise, right?"
"Yup, there isn't." Hop Pop admitted, the excitation turning into groaning.
"Sorry kids," Felicia said, "but Mr. Plantar and I had been checking our food reserves and… there's nothing left."
"Nothing left?" Anne protested, getting up and walking inside the Fwagon "No, that's impossible. We can't be out of food: I personally checked the reserves before we left the Valley…Where is the reserve of beetle jerky? ... And the dried-up mushroom, the smoked Heron Meat?" Her voice inside the fwagon began to sound more and more erratic and panicking, "My well-preserved omelets? The emergency stash of crab meat? AND MY SECRET SLEW OF FROZEN CHOCOPEDE CREAM?!"
"Everything's gone, we already checked," Felicia solemnly said, shaking her head. "There's nothing edible left in the whole Fwagon."
"How could this have happened?" Marcy asked, while Anne rushed back outside, "Those reserves were supposed to last until we reached Newtopia!"
"I guess that's what happens when someone insists on taking all those breaks during the initial part of our trip, so we kept missing our travel quota everyday." She gave a stern glance to Sasha and Ivy, the two girls grumbling, "Maybe, if you had paid us more attention then, we would be further on the road by now!"
"But still, we are talking about a stash of food meant to sustain twelve people for at least one month!" Anne lamented, "How much overeating have we been doing?"
"I'm sorry mom, I knew you really wanted me to succeed-"
"Please no, Marenine!" Anne cried, trying to heal her own movie-induced sadness with large amounts of Beetle Jerk, "You can't throw away your lifetime's dream just because of one mistake-"
(….)
"Sash, aren't you taking too much meat?" Hop Pop asked, as she saw the blonde girl take yet another portion, "It's the third portion I see you taking."
"We have some heavy work to do later, and I need my energy fuel," She replied, biting her food with anger, the old frog realizing she would take two more portions at least…
(…)
"This passage is extremely interesting," Marcy murmured, crunching cricket chips in her mouth, her eyes focused on the book she was reading, unaware of how many chips she had devoured already.
"Huh… a lot."
"Well, well," Amelia whispered to Polly, "Looks like there's no food left…officially." She raised her cone hat for a few seconds, letting the polliwog see the hidden emergency rations of sweets under it.
"I know," the polliwog took off one biscuit hidden in her bow, taking a bite before hiding it again, "That's what the plebes think."
"Guys, guys!" James tried to get everyone's attention, "Instead of discussing who should get the blame for our food stashes running out, why don't we use those energies to try and find a solution, instead? How about the lizard you defeated yesterday, Mar-Mar. We are not too far from where we had left it; we could go back there on Akitsu and-"
"No, even if the carcass hadn't attracted other predators already, its flesh would be rotten and unsafe to eat by now, no matter how hard you try to cook it!" Hop Pop commented, "Though in hindsight, it would have been a good idea to take more of that meat to replenish our stocks."
"This is all our fault!" Anne grunted with the hands on her hair, "We dragged you guys here to find a way to get us home, then I forced you to make all those stops and ran out of our food reserves earlier than we expected, and now we're all going to starve to death!" She sat down again, feeling selfish.
For a brief second, no one said anything, the frogs and other humans glancing at each other. Then, everyone around Anne began to laugh wildly.
"Anne, we are not going to starve!" Jacob quipped, the first of them to speak, "We just have to replenish our stock the old way." He grinned, embracing his hammer.
"Yes, we are in a jungle filled with plants and animals!" Sprig waved around, "We just have to get them the way nature intended… as hunters!"
"Hunters, eh?" Anne rubbed her chin, an image beginning to form in her head…
(…)
Anne was running through the forest through the forest, dressed in a pitch-black armor, camo paint over her cheeks, a quiver full of arrows on her back and a bow in her right hand, moving through the vegetation with speed and agility. Reaching an elevated position where her friends Marcy and Sasha were already waiting, both dressed in clothes akin to hers: Sasha was dressed in a heavy blood-red armor full of thorns, both Heron swords in her hands, while Marcy was in her full Ranger regalia, crossbow in her hands and spell bags around her waist, while looking on the horizon with binoculars.
Suddenly, their prey came into sight: a herd of giant chickens, already cooked and roasted yet somehow still moving as if alive, rushed ahead of them. Marcy smiled, giving her friend a sign before taking out a small whistle and blowing into it. The large cooked chickens kept running, when they suddenly saw a buzzing shadow appear from above, and they saw Akitsu flying just over them as Jacob, James and Amelia, all in uniforms and armed to the teeth, jumped down on them, the three girls attacking the herd from behind, every chicken hit exploding in multicolored explosions of mushroom-shaped smoke.
The scene cut to the campsite, where Hop Pop, Felicia, and everyone else was clearly starving, only to rejoice as soon as the humans brought forward what they had hunted.
"We have provided." The Imaginary Anne shouted, as everyone started to feed on a frenzy, "Now feed!" She began to laugh.
(…)
"Boonchuy?" Sasha snapped her fingers in front of her eyes, bringing her back to reality, "You're making a fantasy of us hunting some kind of already-cooked food, right? You know that's not how it works?"
"Details, Sash!" Anne cheerfully replied, turning to the others, "Guys, leave the hunting to us!"
"Anne?" Felicia raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure about that? Not that I'm underplaying your skills, but are you sure you don't need help? I am quite knowledgeable about hunting, and my presence could make the work easier."
"To tell the truth, Felicia," Jacob raised his hand, "I wanted to ask too if I can go on my own for a bit. I wanted to…test what Soggy Joe taught me, and to see how I manage on my own."
"Just leave everything to us!" Sasha thumbed up, "I promise we will be careful!"
"Ooh! I can teach them to hunt the Plantar way, Hop Pop." Sprig proposed, "Just like you taught me!"
"The Plantar way?" Ivy gasped excitedly, "Then I want to come too!"
"I want to join as well!" Amelia shouted.
"Fine, fine!" Hop Pop replied, "You can go, but please kids, be careful. We're far away from the Valley and we don't know what kind of dangerous predators you may end up meeting! They could be poisonous, or they could be psychic, they could be poisonous and psychic. You don't know!"
"Mr. Plantar, please!" Felicia moved him aside, trying to tranquilize him, "I can assure you that, in my long career as an adventurer, I never met a predator that was poisonous and psychic. They don't exist!"
"They don't?" Hop Pop repeated, feeling relieved to learn that, "I'm sorry, looks like my paranoid habit returned."
"No need to do that. Besides, every adventurer knows that creatures big enough to prey on frogs can only be venomous and psychic. A whole different thing!"
Seriously, a monster which is both poisonous and psychic? Nice joke, Hopediah! Felicia chuckled, without noticing the terrorized expression the old Plantar frog was making right now.
"Good!" Jacob thumbed up, "Anyone else want to join?"
"I guess I'm coming as well!" Marcy announced, "Hop Pop forbade me to resume my work on translation for a few days still, and… I am quite curious about the Plantar's way of hunting! Maddie, you're coming?"
"Sorry, Marbles, but I have a couple of new spells to try out. And while I did help in the making of your gift, I'm not interested in hunting."
"I'm staying as well," Polly nodded. "You know I don't refuse a good fight, but I don't think that's what you'll get."
"Still, we are more than enough to split into two parties!" Jacob suggested, "Soggy Joe taught me that, to avoid competition among hunters and cover a large area, it's recommended to split up in smaller groups if that's feasible. Anne, Sprig, how about you go south while I go north?"
"Works for me!"
"We're going with you, Boonchuy." Sasha volunteered, Ivy at her side, "My little sis wants to see how Plantars hunt, and I'd choose you anytime over him." She glared at Jacob.
"Hey!" The mentioned boy protested, only for James to intervene.
"I guess then I'm going with my bro. I don't know anything about hunting, but I think I may know enough about nature to help if needed."
"I'm coming with you girls!" Marcy jumped, "I'm interested in the Plantars' way of hunting too!"
"Then I guess I'll stick with my cousin and his bro" Amelia rolled her eyes but also smiled at Jacob. "Akitsu, are you ready to fly?"
"Bri-bram!"
"I'm so pumped!" Anne exclaimed, "This is going to be awesome!"
"This is not awesome." Anne bitterly said, raising her head from the mud, Sprig, Ivy, and Marcy alongside her, while Sasha sat on a nearby log with a disgusted expression. As it turned out, reality was nowhere close how she fantasized it to be.
"Look, I know I promised to be more open-minded and willing to listen to others' ideas, but…what are you doing?" Sasha asked as Sprig once again dove into the mud and began munching it, causing a new wave of nausea in Anne and herself. "I thought we were supposed to get food, but we can't eat mud!"
"We are not eating mud, we are tasting it!" Sprig replied, as Sasha gave him an unphased expression, "Hunting the Plantar's way involves three main steps. The first one is the simplest: track the prey." He grabbed a bit of mud in his hand, "The mud is a buffet of clues, and it could tell you a lot about what you can find and where."
"So, we're basically supposed to analyze the ground sample to…find out hints about the animal's activity?" Marcy raised an eyebrow before smiling. "This is so interesting!"
"I know, right?!" Ivy joined, earning an approving look from Sprig and an exasperated expression from Sash.
"Ugh!" Anne lamented, clearly bothered by the situation, "I thought hunting was supposed to be cool. Conquering nature and stuff. Not eating mud!"
"Conquering nature?" Sprig replied, spitting the mud he was munching a few seconds ago, "Oh, no, no. Hunting is about becoming one with nature."
"Oh no," Sasha facepalmed, "he's starting to talk like one of those hippie guys."
"Sash, instead of standing back, why don't you try to join?" Marcy suggested, "You may even appreciate it."
"Thank you, but I just cleaned myself this morning!" The blonde girl waved her hand, clearly not wanting to roll around in the mud, "You do the tracking, I'll join later when it's time to slay things!" She patted her swords, only for Sprig to glare back at her.
"Weapons are for barbarians!"
"What?" Anne replied, "What do you expect, that we hunt them barehanded-?"
"Oh, oh!" Sprig suddenly became excited "I think I'm getting something. This way!"
"Let's go!" Ivy rushed behind him, Marcy, Sasha and Anne following them, the latter with a face now completely devoid of any enthusiasm.
Maybe I should've asked to go with Jacob and the others, the Thai-American girl thought with regret, I'm sure that whatever they're doing now, they are not tasting mud…
(…)
"Hey Jacob?" Amelia looked at him with a puzzled look, as her cousin was now leaning on the ground and sniffing with force. "I don't want to appear indiscreet, but…what are you doing?"
"Just putting into practice what Soggy Joe taught me," the boy wearing the wooden Viking hat replied, tasting the smell he could perceive through the air while his eyes scanned the ground, looking for any footprints left by bugs or any other creatures. "I'm using his teaching to learn if any suitable prey passed by."
"Wait, you can recognize the tracks left by bugs?" James wondered, suddenly curious.
"Would you believe me if I tell you that Soggy Joe made me memorize every single footprint left by every major bug or other creature on Amphibia?" Jacob replied, Amelia immediately taken back by the affirmation, "It was quite hard to do, but…I guess it is about time it paid off."
"Bru-brim?"
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Jacob, if you can recognize the tracks left on the ground, could you tell us where we can find something good? Preferably something big…and that won't put up too much of a fight?"
"Is not that simple, Amelia. Many bug species, due to similarity in their limbs and weight, leave tracks who can be quite misleading to an untrained eye. In fact- there, look!" He pointed out as James and Amelia noticed what looked like a tray of bug's footprint moving through the fresh ground ahead of them. "I do recognize these traces: these are from a whole pack of Camel Crickets!"
"What's so interesting about a bunch of crickets?"
"Besides the fact they are amazing fast-travelers and they migrate their whole life in search of food?" Jacob looked back at her, "These creatures are known to feed on many wild fruits and other plants that are known to be edible for many species, and they're not the fighter kind. That means, if we follow the tracks and find the pack, we have good chances to also find a lot of good fruits, plants, and mushrooms to restock our lost supplies."
"That's…actually good thinking, Jacob!" James complimented him, "From the way you started, I assumed you were going to suggest we would hunt on those crickets."
"What? No way!" His bro sounded offended, "Look guys, I know what you were expecting, but Soggy Joe taught me that hunting doesn't always equate to killing other creatures just to fill your stomach. Sometimes, you can accomplish the latter without the former, simply by learning from the animals instead of hurting them."
"The survivalist frog is also a philosopher?" James' eyebrows raised in surprise, both at the same time. "I wasn't expecting that."
"So, is there something else Soggy Joe taught you about those crickets, Jacob?" Amelia asked as all three the humans got on Akitsu's back, the big white dragonfly flapping her wings faster and faster, creating a powerful windblast around herself as she detached from the ground.
"Well," her cousin replied with a mischievous expression, "he did tell me that among the plants those Cricket likes, there is a rare variety of blue-skinned apples that are extremely delicious for frogs… or bugs."
"BRI! BRI-BRI-BRA-BRAM!"
"Ok, ok, we'll get you some!" Amelia hurried to say to stop her over-excited partner. "Geez, Jacob, are you trying to make Akitsu drop all of us on the ground?"
"Hey, you were the one who asked."
(…)
"There! Sprig said, pointing out to a large shrub right in front of them. Before Anne, Sasha, or anyone else could ask, however, they saw the shrub shake, as they realized that something was hiding inside it.
Something that, a few minutes later, revealed itself to be a worm-like creature resembling an éclair in shape and color, even having some bumps resembling dollops of cream on their back.
"Oh, what is that?" Marcy gasped, "Living pastries?"
"They're called Grubbles, Mar-Mar!" Ivy immediately explained, "Mom even brought me to hunt some once: they're delicious!"
"I'm sure they are…" Marcy murmured quietly. I wonder if there are Red Velvet Grubbles with Ube frosting bumps too.
"Very well, then let's go-" Sasha took a step forward, ready to unsheathe her swords, only to be stopped by Sprig (again).
"What did I say earlier? Weapons are for barbarians! The Plantar's way of hunting does not permit them."
"Oh yeah?" Sasha replied, unsure (and even a bit 'amused') by how the little frog in front of her was planning to capture those creatures. Maybe not too much however, seeing how those delicious-looking living pastry worms didn't appear too keen on self-preservation. "So, tell me, now that we've found them, what are the next steps?"
Sprig smiled, as he took the challenge, "Step two: use your surroundings."
The three human girls (and Ivy) stood there, silently watching as Sprig dug a foot-deep hole just right in front of the shrub, before ripping out some tree bark and placing it near to the hole, leaning toward the bush like a ramp.
"What-what is he doing?" Anne asked, unsure.
"Looks like he's building a trap using only materials found in the nearby surrounding area," Marcy commented, "Very ingenious!"
"He is my friend and partner for ambushes," Ivy smiled proudly. "Sash, can you see it? He is making a trap for the grumbles."
"I can see that," the blonde human replied, ready to unleash her most sarcastic side, "yet, the trap is quite visible in the open, and there isn't even any bait. How does he plan to convince those Grubbles to get inside?"
"That's what the third step of the Plantar's way of hunting is for." The yellow frog replied with a smirk.
"And now," Sprig announced, looking at his work with a proud smile, "it's time for the final and most important step... the dance."
"What?" Sasha gasped, unsure of what that could mean.
"Dance? What do you mean da..." before Anne could finish her question, Sprig began his 'dance', "Oh, my gosh." She covered her eyes, unable to keep looking, "You gotta be kidding me."
"It's…peculiar, I guess?" Said Marcy, while struggling not to smile, as Sasha couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"This dance has been in our family for generations." Sprig said, as he continued his 'dance'. "Watch me closely. It's designed to both entice and disorient."
"Sasha?" Anne jerked, noticing her friend's phone, "You're recording that?"
"Speed it up a little, add Benny Hill's theme in background and we have the next Internet hit, Boonchuy." The blonde girl replied with a chuckle.
Yet, several grubbles emerged from the shrub, moving to the rhythm of his music, before throwing themselves into the trap Sprig had built. As the young frog continued his dance, more and more grubbles soon emerged from the jungle and stupidly joined the first wave in the hole, like they were in trance. From where she was standing, Marcy quickly realized that this 'hunting dance' was working, and immediately after, her eyes shined bright green for a brief second as realization hit her and the lovable nerd girl figured out how the dance worked.
The girls watched in silence as Sprig puffed out and slapped his cheeks, to create a hollow drumming sound, followed by him flopping down on the ground like a fish, and then by repeatedly smacking his own face on the ground.
"Oh, boy." Anne groaned, rolling her eyes, "Okay, that's enough! I think we can hunt just fine without a funny little dance."
"There's nothing funny about the sacred Plantar hunting dance, Anne." Sprig scoffed, almost offended. "Besides, didn't you three like to dance?"
"Well, yeah, when there's music and a dance floor. I mean, is this even necessary?"
"Anne," Ivy intervened, "Didn't you see with your own eyes? The dance worked!"
"While I still feel weirded out by it, we must admit there is some truth to it, Anne," Sasha nodded. "I mean, we did see all those grumbles throw themselves into the trap he dug earlier."
"You mean this dance somehow forces animals to get inside traps on their own free will?" Anne replied with skepticism. "And how's that possible?"
"I think I may have an explanation!" Marcy loudly announced, showing up two large pages of her Journal, depicting the various steps and movements Sprig had done. "You said this dance was in your family for generations. Have the steps and movements necessary to perform it ever changed?"
"Nope, it's still the same after so many centuries!" Sprig proudly admitted, "Hop Pop was quite adamant on this when he first taught me."
"Then, I may have figured out how it works. Look: as the dancer moves, he generates a series of fast movements, sounds and vibrations that could overwhelm a creature's nervous system, generating confusion as it imprints on it. In short, it's a dance that can hypnotize living creatures."
"Hypnotize-" Sasha repeated, before suddenly reaching a realization as well. "Wait! Do you mean that this was the dance that…those herons…"
"The one our parents tried to use to save Wartwood, yes," Sprig nodded, looking down as Ivy tried to comfort him, Anne suddenly feeling shame for having dismissed it.
"I-I'm sorry, Sprig," Anne apologized. "Wow, you did tell me but…I didn't make that connection already."
"It's ok, Anne, I know you didn't mean to," Sprig replied, smiling at his adoptive sister.
"I do have a question, however," Sasha raised her hand. "If this dance can hypnotize even large critters, why didn't you use it on the first day when we met, against that red mantis?"
"Because I didn't know it at that time," Sprig replied. "Hop Pop taught me it only a bit later, when you girls went on your own things, and you left us with James and Jacob…"
(…)
"Mom! Hop Pop!" Ivy announced with a cheerful tone, as she and Sprig walked back in the campsite, holding two Grubbles each. "We're back! Look what we've got!"
"Grubbles!" Hop Pop was the first to react, a large smile blossoming on his face, "Well done, kids! Look like we're going to feast tonight!"
"Wait a minute, where is Marcy?" Maddie asked, noticing the absence of her best human friend. "And Sasha? And Anne?"
"We split up," Sprig admitted, still feeling a bit worried about leaving the girls alone without him. "Anne suggested that if we did so, we could catch double the wildfowl."
"Good thinking, even if it's a bit risky." Felicia replied, "Still, if Sasha is with them, we have no reason to worry: I personally trained that girl. If something bad happens, she will be more than able to protect them." She said with a voice full of pride.
"Did you meet some dangerous critters out there?" Polly asked, with an excited expression. "Was there some dangerous predator you faced? Was it venomous, psychic or both?"
"What? No!" Sprig hurried to respond. "We didn't meet anything of the sort. Beside these grubbles, there was barely any wildlife, and nothing too big! The forest was peaceful, silent, quiet-"
Sprig didn't notice, but as he spoke, an alarm bell rang inside Felicia's mind. As her previous experiences as an adventurer had taught her, a forest was NEVER supposed to be quiet: vegetation would attract herbivores, and they would in turn attract predators, and all these creatures would leave clear hints of their presence with their sounds and noises.
If a forest was too quiet, it could only mean that the animals usually living in it either left or are hiding from some much more dangerous creature or other kind of threats. Could it possibly be that Hop Pop's rambles about venomous and mind-reading monsters had some truth to it?
Nevertheless, Fate had already decided that she wouldn't have a chance to warn her family and travel companions. As the tea-maker turned around, ready to raise the alarm, something stingy hit her on the shoulder, Felicia jerking for a second as she grabbed it, massaging the body part where it hurt her skin, her eyes widening in horror as she realized it was a tranquilizer dart.
A dart filled with some kind of sleepy drug, she realized as the head began to feel dizzy, falling on her knees as Ivy rushed to help her.
Stupid, Felicia reprimanded herself before losing consciousness, as many figures appeared out of the bushes, surrounding the campsite, the Plantars and Maddie trying and failing to put up any resistance.
In a few minutes, it was all over.
(…)
"So, Hop Pop and Sprig were there, both shaking their bodies, and the first thing I could ever think was: what the frog's going on?"
"Was this dance that weird to witness?" Amelia raised an eyebrow, as she kept gathering apples from the trees she was climbing on. The wannabe samurai, together with the two boys, were now on the shore of a small lake, where the tracks of the Camel Crickets's pack had led them to. Jacob's predictions had come true as the humans had found several shrubs and small trees filled with fruits and mushrooms they were now gathering. Already Akitsu had made two trips back to the Fwagon carrying large bags of edible items, and soon, a third trip would be required.
"From a human's point of view, it rather was," James chuckled, thinking back to that day. "Still, I guess it was nice to see Hopediah bond with his grandson. Plus, from what I heard from Mrs. Croaker the Plantar's Hunting Dance is quite effective against all kinds of creatures. Wouldn't you like to be able to hypnotize large creatures, and use them as mounts?"
"Bri!"
"I already have a companion, James, and while hypnosis may be a good asset in time of need, I prefer to face my adversaries in the Way of the Samurai, in a frontal fight!"
"Oh yeah?" Jacob piped in, "Is this why we had to rescue you on several occasions? Because you didn't plan ahead and just rushed in, only to find yourself in trouble?"
"If you're still talking about that skunk-"
Before the conversation would continue, however, the trees shook and a hissing sound was heard, the three humans (and Akitsu) quickly realizing that something was nearby, and approaching them.
Something big.
"Duck and cover, guys!" Jacob hurried to say, "Amelia, have Akitsu lay down her wings, we are currently downwind, that means there's little risk of our smell revealing our position."
"But what do we do, Jacob?" James asked, "Do we fight, we hide, we run or-"
"For now, let's focus on passive observation. We don't know what we may be facing!"
For almost a full minute, the three humans and the large dragonfly did their best not to move, as the sound of trees shaking and stumps became louder, and then-
-a large beetle emerged in front of them, led by a large, muscular frog with a beard and several tatoos of animals on his skin.
A frog that was no one else but Jacob's hunting teacher.
"Soggy Joe?" Jacob gasped, getting back on his feet, the survivalist frog signaling he had seen him too.
"Hy-ho, kid!" Soggy Joe jumped out of his beetle and rushed to hug him, the human boy greeting him back. "It's so nice to see you again!"
"Yes, I can say that too!" Jacob replied, as Amelia, James and Akitsu came out from hiding as well, "We were searching for food in this place, and I was…using what you taught me."
"I guess you did pay attention to my lessons, I didn't even notice you until you revealed yourself."
"Soggy Joe," Amelia said as she and James approached her cousin, "quite surprising to meet you again…this soon. Are you traveling in this area too?"
"Kind off, but I came here to warn you. I'm sorry to ruin your hunting day, but it looks like you're not the only ones hunting."
"What does that even mean?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hoffanio's back." Soggy Joe simply admitted, the three humans shivering as they heard that name and recalling their memories of the last time they ended up facing him, "And this time, he's got company."
"Hoffanio?!" Amelia gasped, "Him again! Wasn't what we did last time enough?"
"Didn't seem like that." The frog survivalist answered, "And now he's back for round three."
"What do mean, Soggy?" asked James, unnerved by the remark.
With a sigh, he began to explain the situation. "After the total failure of his last attempt to capture you all, Hoffanio lost everything. Some debt contractors took away his family's fortune and Newtopia's high society only view him as a disgrace now. I thought it would be enough to get rid of him for good, but then I heard a strange rumor about a bunch of famous hunters gathering in the region. I tracked them down and it led me to the place Hoffanio used to hide his ugly face. Looks like he enrolled them all with promises of future payment, all for a chance to get revenge on you."
"Well, then I guess we'll have to make sure to deal with him permanently, this time." Jacob fixed his hat, his eyes once again filling with resolve. "Just point me in which direction the fat toad is!"
"While I do appreciate the sentiment Jacob, right now isn't the time for that. It took me long enough to find you, and I don't know how much time we have before he and his goons come to look for you. For now, we need to regroup and plan. Where are your friends?"
"Anne, Sasha and Marcy went with Sprig and Ivy hunting south, while Hop Pop and Felicia stayed at the fwagon with-"
A loud blast could be heard from afar, the humans and Soggy Joe turning to see a column of smoke rise to the sky, coming from the spot where the fwagon had stopped.
"Frog, we're too late!" The survivalist frog cursed, clenching his fist. "Come on, kids, we have to move fast!"
"You don't have to tell us twice!" Amelia replied, jumping on Akitsu together with James, as Jacob joined his mentor on the beetle following them…
(…)
"Anna-Banana, are you alright?" Asked Marcy with a worried tone, "Ever since Sprig and Ivy brought those Grubbles back to the camp, you've been moping."
"Yeah, Boonchuy," Sasha nodded, turning around and looking at her friend. "Something's wrong? You said you wanted to catch a double, but you've barely acted!"
"I'm fine, Sash, it's just…I feel guilty for what I said earlier to Sprig, about his dance. I was dismissive about it, and I thought it looked dumb-"
"Well, I have to agree it was quite silly to see it," Sasha tried to cheer her up. "Still, I don't think Sprig took it bad, you and him just lack a bit of communication. Maybe I can help you with that."
"You can?"
"Of course, Anne! You're one of my two best friends and even if I was quite a jerk the last few years, I will do everything I can to help you both. Besides, after what happened with Mar-Mar, I think it is time we start to face our issues rather than run away from them. No hiding things, no secrets, we share everything and we help each other. Isn't that right?"
"Yes, no more…secrets." Marcy looked aside, her voice trembling for a few seconds.
"So, you're going to put those manipulative skills of yours for a good use, Sash?" Anne replied, with an amused smirk, "That's not a bad idea, you should become a psychologist, and get paid handsomely to deal with other people's messes."
"For now, my priority is to take care of your messes, and by extension, mine." The blonde girl chuckled, before thinking about it for a second. "Still, that's not a bad idea, plus-"
A sudden blast coming from the North, and a tall column of smoke rose to the sky, interrupted the conversations, the three girls taking only a few seconds to realize that the smoke was coming from where the Fwagons were located.
"Wha... Guys!" Anne gasped in shock, starting to run in direction of the camp.
"Something must have happened back at the camp!" Marcy squealed, as she and Sasha ran behind Anne.
Let's hope that's just another stash of Jacob's powder going boom, Sasha silently prayed as she ran, even as she knew the probabilities were quite low, please let Ivy, Felicia and the others be ok…
"Oh no…" Anne gasped in shock, as the three of them reached the campsite, and found it deserted. The two large Fwagons were still in their place, yet Hop Pop, Felicia and everyone else had disappeared, Polly's bucket was lying on the side, and the dinner's pot was thrown down. All signs implied that, just now, something terrible had happened. "Sprig? Hop Pop? Polly?"
"Felicia, Ivy!" Sasha yelled as loud as she could, "Please if you can hear me, tell me!"
"Maddie!" Marcy looked around in fear, before checking inside the Fwagon as well. The spellbook was laying open on the table, alongside the ingredients needed to prepare some new spells: whatever had happened, it must have happened so quickly even her friend and magic teacher was caught by surprise by it.
"Meep! Meep!"
"Meip!"
"Bessie, Liptea!" Anne rushed toward the snails, both hiding behind the fwagon, "Hey, hey, hey, girls. Shh, calm down, we are here now."
"They are scared," Sasha realized, "But what could-"
New sounds came from the north, the blonde human turning around just in time to see Akitsu descend from the sky, Amelia and James jumping off her back as a large beetle emerged from the trees, led by Jacob and a frog they all were familiar with.
"Oh, no!" Soggy Joe said, looking around, "We were too late!"
"Guys, Amelia, Soggy Joe!" Anne rushed toward them, "What's going on?"
"The worst: Hoffanio's back." Jacob said with a solemn, bitter voice as the three girls gasped in shock, "What's worse, he's out for revenge, and with a team of expert hunters to get back at us."
"That fat toad dared to mess with my family?!" Sasha yelled in anger, her eyes twitching with fury, "This time, I am going to cream him!"
"Look, guys, they left a message!" Amelia pointed out to the side of the Fwagon, where a small piece of written paper was fixed on the side with the help of a dagger. Quickly, the brown-hair samurai ripped the paper and began to read it aloud. "Dear humans, if you're reading this… blah, blah, blah… you're surely now convinced of my…blah, blah…dear frog, this guy surely gets dramatic when he's writing threats!"
"Yes, brevity has never been one of his strengths." Soggy Joe commented as he thought back to some memories of his past. "Anyway, does he tell you where he brought Hopediah and the others?"
"Yes, the Green Bog Hill! Says he's waiting for us to get there, and that if we want to rescue them, we need to come even- oh frog, this is nonsense! He keeps talking about how 'beast' like us probably won't understand this or that, yet he left us a written message?"
"I know that place!" Soggy Joe announced, "It's just a little back on the road. A good place for ambushes tho..."
"Then we must go and free our families!"
"Anne," Jacob shook his head, "you do realize that this is obviously a trap, right? That's precisely what Hoffanio wants: for us to rush in, trying to rescue our families and let ourselves be vulnerable to whatever nasty surprise he is cooking." before adding with a low and angry grumble "I guess that's where the other hunters came in..."
"How many other hunters are we talking?" Marcy quickly asked.
"Not sure, too many still." James shook his head, "According to Soggy Joe, he recruited a whole bunch of hunters to assist him against us, and that he expects to pay them with the earnings of our…well, capture."
"Then, what can we do?" Anne lamented, "We can't just stand and let them be his prisoners! Don't tell me you want to abandon them!"
"Of course not!" Jacob grimaced, "I'm 100%, absolutely agreeing with you that we must rescue them. Only, we should come up with a strategy of our own first."
"Jacob's right!" Amelia jumped in, "Those guys are waiting for us to waltz in, how about instead we use what we know to surprise them in turn?"
"I have faced Hoffanio for a long time, and it's my fault I wasn't here to stop him from taking your friends hostage. The best I can do now is to help you as much as I can: I know how he thinks, and what kind of traps you could expect … and what he won't expect from you. Jacob, are you thinking what I am thinking?"
Jacob smiled, nodding slowly. "Tenth rule of the Hunter?"
"Tenth Rule of the Hunter."
"Huh, what is the tenth rule of the Hunter?" Marcy asked with a curious expression.
"Any hunter can become…the hunted," both the human boy and the survivalist frog quoted at the same time.
(…)
"You won't get away with this!" Polly protested, struggling to free herself from the cage she was currently detained in, to no avail. Around her, Hop Pop, Felicia, Sprig, Ivy, and Maddie were all tied up with heavy chains that made impossible for them to run away or try to fight their captors, "As soon as I get my flippers on you-"
"Shut up, you lowly tadpole!" Lizanio retorted, with his back turned. "I remind you that you're bait, and bait is not supposed to be talkative!"
"By frog, I can't believe we've found a guy even more obnoxious than Albus Duckweed!" Sprig grumbled, tied together with Maddie and Ivy. "Are all newts this insufferable?"
"Mend your words," a deep voice announced, as Hoffanio walked into view, the aristocratic hunter outfit he wore the very first day he met them now dirty and ruined in several spots, "Lizanio is a decent hunter…for a sheltered, spoiled son of a noble."
"Hey!" The hunter newt protested, only to be ignored.
"Hopediah Plantar, it's been so long since the last time we met, was it? Ever since you refused to accept my generous offer to buy those creatures…"
"Those are not mere creatures; they are my children!" The old frog spat back, glaring at Hoffanio. "And I remind you that every time you tried to get your filthy hands on them, they kicked your sorry behind!"
"Yeah, this is what happens when you try to take away my sister!" Ivy announced, only for Hoffanio to turn toward her.
"Sister?" He repeated with a disbelieved tone, "You seriously consider that beast-"
"She is my adoptive daughter, Ivy's big sister," Felicia said, looking at him, "and I'll enjoy seeing her defeat you once again!"
"No way…Felis the Red, the legendary adventurer? Is that you?!"
"Oh, so apparently you do remember me, 'Little' Hoffy? You may act all arrogant now, but you can't change the inside: you'll always be the little toad who was afraid of the shadow of his father!"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Hoffanio grumbled, looking around to make sure none of his 'subordinates' were laughing at him. "You may laugh at me, Felis, but in the end, I am the one who's going to come out on top! For it is you, that is leading them right to m-"
"Hoffanio!" A hunter toad with crooked teeth rushed in, nervousness plain on his face, "We've lost contact with the Buzyn Brothers! They were setting up the trap for those creatures, and they should've reported in by now."
"What?!" Hoffanio roared in anger, ignoring both the sly smirk on Felicia and Hop Pop's faces, and how the experienced adventurer was taking advantage of all the distractions to slowly, but steadily weakening the constraints currently blocking her movements.
(…)
"Looks like your idea was right, Soggy Joe!" James commented, hiding among the shrubs and looking at the hunter's camp with his binoculars, the other humans crouching nearby, ready for more action. "Hoffanio really did set up camps so they could attack us from all over the hill."
"I'd say, this is quite a strange hill," Amelia pointed out, noticing how the geological formation looked too spherical and geometrically correct to look real, "Soggy Joe, what's under that hill?"
"Nothing at all. The underground is made of harsh rock, other frogs tried to dig under it in the past, looking for rare minerals and resources, but they never managed to even dent it."
"I'm receiving a signal from Jacob," James said, pointing at some bright reflection coming from another side of the hill. "Looks like he and Marcy took out their guards, we've got the green light to proceed."
Immediately, Amelia wore her Blue Oni mask over her mouth and the lower side of her face, while James covered his head with the hood, the smoke bombs Mrs. Croaker had provided him in his hands.
"Are you sure you don't want my help, kids?" Soggy Joe asked, "I know it may not seem like it, but I can be quite scary when I want!"
"Oh, we know that already." James shrugged, thinking back at the first impression he had of him back at Camp Phlemington. "But we need someone to reach Hop Pop and the others, and make sure they're okay. Can you find them without anyone noticing you?"
"Kiddo, they didn't notice me even as I was eavesdropping on the very roof of the house they were in. I'll have no problems finding your families and freeing them!"
"Perfect!" The British boy grinned. "Amelia, Operation Crystal Lake Camp is a go! Are you ready to give these guys a lesson they won't forget anytime soon?"
"To use a quote from my cousin: criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot." The girl smiled evilly as well, for a brief second reminding James of the time she became Sadako Yamamura. "And we must strike terror into their hearts!"
(…)
"Something's wrong!" One of the hunters, a fat Toad who had introduced himself previously as "The Rising Star of Hunting coming directly from the Eastern Tower', commented, looking around nervously. "Where is Mike?! I saw him a few minutes ago, and now he's gone!"
They had been previously assigned to a small area of the forest to the west, watching one of the many supposed paths where those 'hummus' would pass, to go and free those frogs. This way, when they would show up, they would have been in an advantageous position to lay an ambush and capture them alive and with minimal damage (as Hoffanio pointed out, to sell them their skins would have to been in good conditions). An easy plan, an even easier job to do, what could possibly go wrong?
Apparently, everything.
"Shut up, you unprofessional toad!" Lizanio replied, looking over the sorry excuses of hunters he was currently stuck with: eight toads, all claiming themselves to be great hunters, yet too crude and unrefined in their skills to be seen as such. "Keep your eyes open and watch over for anything worth reporting. Hoffanio had entrusted me to oversee this part of the operation, and I don't want to screw it up all due to your incompetence!"
The other hunters grumbled, and yet they acted as they were ordered. Lizanio shrugged: Newts had to lead and Toads had to obey, that's the natural order of things, no matter how much such lower beings could lament. If these idiots couldn't even follow the most basic orders-
A sudden sound, like a crash, and an interrupted yell came to interrupt his thought. Immediately, the newt hunter rushed in the direction of the sound, only to find a scene worthy of a horror book: one of the toad hunters was hanging from one of the trees, upside down, unconscious.
"They got another one!" One of the toads yelled.
"Frog, how can those creatures take on many hunters at once? And win?!"
"Everyone, calm down!" Lizanio yelled again. "These beasts may be skillful, but-"
"YAAGH!" Another toad yelled, as something nondescript grabbed him from behind and knocked him out cold, disappearing before the other toads even had the time to react or see it.
"It was there! It was frogging there!" One the remaining toads started to freak out, his expression filled with panic.
"Ok, nowthis is personal!" Lizanio roared, unable to conceive having lost so many underlings in a few minutes, taking out his crossbow and holding it to shoot at any moment. "Come out, you, whatever you are!" He yelled at the green, searching for his would-be prey. "You can hide, but you can't run. Just come out and face me!"
For a few seconds, there was no reply. Then, a small explosion blasted among the trees, scaring Lizanio and the two toads who were still with him, all of them shooting in direction of the blast.
"Nothing!" Lizanio realized. "Whatever it was-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a small bag dropped among them, and in a split second, detonated in a powerful flash of light, blinding them for a few seconds. Instinctively, Lizanio turned around, covering his eyes with one hand, trying to find a way out with the other, while he could hear something emerging from the bushes and attack the two toads.
Frog this, Lizanio mentally yelled as soon as he could see again, whatever Hoffanio may pay for this, it's not worth it. It's every newt for himself!
So, he ran, abandoning the two toads, as he struggled to navigate through the forest, looking for a way out of this place. Yet, as he noticed a shadow moving behind him with the corner of the eye, he realized he was being followed.
"Just show up, you coward!" The Newt yelled again, unable to maintain his focus.
And then, the thing showed up.
Lizanio could barely repress a gasp of horror as he saw a tall figure, tailless and yet with horns over his head, emerge from the shadows and stand in front of him, its eyes focused on him. In panic, the newt tried to use his crossbow, only to remember one second too late he used all the projectiles, and now he had to recharge it.
In desperation, the newt threw away his weapon and lunged at the figure with his fist, but the creature was ready. With a quick movement, he grabbed his arm and shoved him toward the ground, Lizanio yelping in pain as it grabbed a large hammer and hit it with force.
"Y-you…what kind of creature even are you?!" Lizanio yelled, as he saw other creatures emerge behind the first one.
"I am the shadow under the trees." Jacob said, trying to do a 'Batman' impression, "I am the vengeance for every prey you threatened. I am the terror in your mind. I am…JACOB THE NORSEMANN."
And then, the creature punched him again, and Lizanio lost consciousness.
(…)
"Psssh, Felicia?" Hop Pop murmured with a low voice, careful that neither Hoffanio nor one of his allies could hear him, "How's going with the restraints?"
"I unlocked the last one a few minutes ago," the former adventurer replied with a smirk. "How about you?"
"Same," Hop Pop admitted with pride. "It's been a long time since someone tried to tie me up. Good to know I haven't lost my touch yet."
"Wait, when did you learn such a skill?" Sprig asked, still fumbling his own attempt.
"Just something I learned back when I was the- I mean, something I learned a long time ago." The old frog shrugged. Not yet Sprig, you're not ready to learn the truth of my past already.
"I think I've got this, mom!" Ivy (quietly) cheered up. "I found the shatterpoint of the mechanism. We have to pull at the right moment, and we can easily free ourselves!"
"Frog, frog!" Hoffanio kept yelling, realizing he was now alone. "Where are those idiots?!"
"You mean these idiots?!" A voice called from behind him, Hoffanio turning to see the six humans standing right there, the other hunters beaten up and lying on the ground.
"We saw your message," Sasha yelled, throwing the piece of paper that the frog had left back at the fwagon back at his feet, "and we're here. Now, free our families!"
"It's impossible!" Hoffanio gasped, seeing all his underlings the supposed 'cream of the crop' in Amphibia's hunting world, laying at their feet, beaten by their own quarry.
Just like he was, when he faced them the first time, the toad hunter grumbled in anger as he felt the need to slap his own forehead. He did warn them to not underestimate them, did he? He told them that those beasts were able to think and plan and use strategies against their enemies. Had they paid attention to him when he explained that? Did they?
Apparently, they didn't.
"S-stand down!" Hoffanio took a step back, trying to find some card he could use against them. "I still have them, so if you want to save them-"
"There is no need for that," Felicia shrugged, suddenly getting up on her feet as her shackles fell apart with a slight movement of her part, Hop Pop following suit while Soggy Joe was helping the others. "Seriously, 'Little' Hoffy: you thought a few mere shackles would be able to retrain me indefinitely? Back in my days, I faced real death traps!"
"You!" The fat toad yelled, noticing Soggy Joe among them, "You're always in my way! It wasn't enough for you to ruin me and shame me in front of the pinnacles of high society?!"
"Nothing like that would've happened, if you would have left them alone in the first place!" Soggy replied in turn, glaring at his old enemy. "Your downfall is the result of your own arrogance!"
"Almost there…done!" Ivy gasped as the shackles trapping her, Maddie and Sprig were destroyed as well, the young Plantar frog gasping as he scratches his bruised arms, while both girls focused on Hoffanio.
"Free!" Polly yelled as Hop Pop opened the cage she was in, the hyper-aggressive tadpole smiling evilly at the toad. "Now, I guessit's payback time!"
"Wait, stop!" Hoffanio gasped, trying to come up with an idea to save himself, as the humans and their friends/families surrounded him, giving him no opening he could exploit to run.
Hoffanio took another step back, when something caught his attention, on the corner of his left eye. It was a large crossbow, one of his many 'spares', lying on the side of a box with still one dart loaded on it. If he could grab it and use it-
"Oh no, you don't!" Sasha yelled as she realized his intention, launching herself forward as Hoffanio went for the crossbow. The human girl and the toad both grabbed the weapon and fought for its control as Anne, Jacob and many others rushed to help Sasha. And amid the fight-
STRUNG! Someone inadvertently pressed the crossbow's trigger, the launched dart flying wild as it bounced off a small rock, barely missed Soggy Joe and entered what it looked like a round-shaped hole, traversing for many meters until it hit something that had been hidden for many years.
Neither Hoffanio, nor Soggy Joe, nor the human and their families, knew at that moment, but the hill Hoffanio had set up camp earlier, and where now they were all gathered, was no natural geological formation at all, but instead the body of a sleeping giant, laying there forgotten by everyone, waiting for something or someone stupid enough to wake it up from its centuries-long hibernation.
Sadly, that day would be today.
The piercing dart hit its unintended target, yet failed to damage or even dent it, barely irritating it like a scratch on a human's skin. But it was enough.
Suddenly and without warning, the ground shook under everyone's feet, humans and Amphibians alike dropping to the ground as Hoffanio's associates were awakened at once.
"H-hey!" Lizanio said, trying to understand what was happening. "Why-"
Then came a second quake, even more powerful than the first one, and a large crack opened, quickly spreading to surround the whole hill, as it began to move more and more violently.
"Earthquake!" Sasha yelled, grabbing Ivy and holding her close, both girls trying to protect their eyes.
"Akitsu!" Amelia yelled with full lungs, "Where are you?!"
"Bri!" The large dragonfly descended from the sky at her rider and friend's call, Amelia jumping on his back, quickly followed by everyone else. For Akitsu, the weight of thirteen people on her was excessive, yet she didn't protest, flapping her wings as fast as she could to counterbalance and move as fast as she could. Hoffanio, for his part, didn't bother to wait and simply ran, abandoning his comrades as the ground gave up under them, swallowed whole by the earthquake.
"W-what in frog's name is going on?" Hop Pop murmured, holding tightly on the very end of Akitsu's abdomen, looking over the devastation that had engulfed Hoffanio's partners, the hill shaking with even more violence as dirt and vegetation fell from it, to reveal a large ellipsoid that had been buried under it, covered in scutes with three dorsal ridges of large scales, olive-green in color.
Barely a second later, he got his answer as he saw four humongous limbs with elephantine claws, big as the largest trees he ever knew, rising from the ground and straightening itself. Then, a long tail, equipped with a spiked end and covered in residual dirt, emerged from behind it. And then, another appendage appeared from its front side, a long neck protected by sharp keratin spines, attached to a long, tapered head with a sharp, curved beak, bright yellow eyes, surrounded by a star-shaped arrangement of fleshy, filamentous "eyelashes", a large hole just above its beak acting as the 'nose'.
"Sash, is that… a Kaiju?" Ivy said in shock, as Akitsu tried to move as fast as she could from the humongous threat. "A real-life Kaiju? Like that 'Godzilla'?!"
"That's not a Kaiju!" Amelia whimpered, as she and Jacob recalled that time they investigated a large, dormant egg they had found on the outskirts of Wartwood, and thanks to Hop Pop and Marcy's help, they found out it belonged to a species of extinct titanic turtle-like monster of Amphibia past. "That's…that's a-"
"A Tarrasquaton," Jacob concluded, his eyes focused on the gigantic lifeform as it moved out of its previous sleeping spot, devastating the vegetation around it. "Amphibia's Cruel Giant."
"Wait, cruel giant?!" Anne gasped in horror, "Don't tell me that thing is a predator!"
"No but it's much more devastating!" Marcy replied, grabbing her Journal and scurrying it to find her previously written notes on the huge turtle creature, "Just one of these creatures could chomp down a whole forest in barely a day, and stomp out any inhabited settlement unlucky enough to be on its path!"
"If we don't try to do something, all the villages in the area will be at risk!" James panicked, "And then, all the cities and towns in Amphibia!"
"We must go and call for help!" Hop Pop shouted, "Maybe, if we can get a hold with the nearest Toad Army garrison, or the Night Guard-"
"The closest place where we could find help is at least two days from here with Akitsu, and even longer by snail!" Felicia shut that idea up, trying to think of an alternative.
"We don't have all that time!" Sprig replied, "In two days, that thing could level everything from here to the Valley!"
"And even if we could have the whole Newtopia Army here," Marcy pointed out, "it wouldn't help our situation: that armor it's too thick to be damaged by common weapons!"
"Couldn't you and Maddie use one of your spells?" Polly suggested, only to be quickly shut down as well.
"Did you see how huge that creature is?" Maddie retorted, "The bigger the creature, the less chance the spell will affect it! We don't have enough spells we could use before he even starts to notice them, and to gather the ingredients needed alone would take months, at minimum!"
"What do we do?!" James yelled, facing the idea of letting this such titan to wreak havoc freely with no chance to stop, or even slow down its rampage. "WHAT DO WE DO?!"
Anne and Sasha looked each other in the eyes, the same idea having blossomed in their mind at the same time. Felicia had said that the creature's armor was too strong to be damaged by Amphibian weapons, but…what about alternate weapons? Weapons of energetic, supernatural nature, who had been proved able to defeat even the most monstrous frog-eating birds of the continent?
It was a desperate plan, filled with risk and with barely any chance of success, and yet, desperate situations called for desperate solutions.
"Are you thinking what I am thinking, Boonchuy?"
"Yes, Perfectly, Sash!"
"Huh, girls?" Jacob asked, noticing their expressions. "What are you-"
Before he could finish his sentence, however, both girls jumped off Akitsu together, their friends and families gasping as they did. Their horror mellowed down, however, replaced by shock as they saw the girls bust in colored lights, activating their Powers, before heading toward the humongous turtle monster's front , aiming for a weak spot. The Tarrasquaton saw them incoming fist pumped forward, blazes of blue and pink energy burning around them as they speed up against it, their fist colliding with their target-
-only for it to suffer no damage at all.
"What?!" Anne gasped, noticing the lack of results, as her own hand started to pulse with pain, realizing a couple of her fingers' bones may be badly bruised. Worse, while their combined attack had failed to prude any wound, it DID succeed in the unfortunate side effect of making the Tarrasquaton very aware of them, its yellow eyes focusing on them.
"MMMMRRRRRRUUUUUAAAAAHHHH!" The humongous turtle bellowed, steam puffing his singular nostril, as it charged the two girl, moving his lung tail as a mace and hitting the humans, sending them fly. Both Sasha and Anne were protected by most of the aftereffect of such blow by the energy power enveloping them, and yet, as they landed thunderously among the trees, their skin scratched by the bark, they quickly realized that they were outmatched.
Even with their powers, they couldn't compete with the brute strength of the giant reptile.
"Anna-Banana! Sash!" Marcy yelled, jumping out from Akitsu as soon as the dragonfly was close enough to the ground, followed by the others, "Are you ok?"
"I'm…fine, Mar-Mar," Sasha gurgled, as Ivy and Felicia helped her to get back on her feet. "I'm still in for…another round…just need to…find my wits."
"Young lady, there is nothing we can do to stop such a juggernaut!" Felicia retorted, giving one look as the Tarrasquaton began to feed on which vegetation it hadn't devastated already, trampling everything under its feet. "This is not an enemy we can deal with!"
"Sprig, just in case we don't make it" Anne lamented, despair falling over her. "I'm sorry for dismissing your hunting way just because of the dance-"
"The dance?" Sprig repeated, feeling the proverbial light bulb lightening up in his mind. "Anne, you're a genius!"
"Huh, no?" The Thai-American girl replied, unsure of her friend's reaction, "I was saying I am wrong…"
"The Plantar Hunting Dance can affect any kind of creature, even the big ones such as the herons!" The young frog explained, everyone listening to him. "So, it could work on something as big as that thing, right?"
"I-I think that may work?" Hop Pop thought about it, "The issue, we would need many dancers at the same time for the dance to be more effective. Plus, we can't do the dance ourselves: the Tarrasquatons are known to go on rampage at the sight of any amphibian!"
"Then, how about us?" Jacob walked forward, newly-found determination burning in his eyes.
"That's it!" Marcy happily approved, "If we can charm the creature with the dance, we can put it back to sleep!"
"Absolutely no-!" Sasha started to scream for a second, before calming herself, "Okay, but just this once! And only because I like you guys a lot."
"I'm not the kind of girl to run away from a fight, but considering our odds," Amelia gave another nervous look at the giant tortoise, "I'll go with the dance. At least, I hope that works."
"Huh, are you sure this is a good idea?" James asked, "I mean, this dance you described, I don't know how to play it…"
"Just follow our instructions," Hop Pop replied, "and I promise everything will be fine."
(…)
"Are you ready, guys?" Jacob called out, the six humans looking at the giant shelled monster having finished whatever was left of the surrounding plants and was now moving in search of new food. "Anyone got something to say in case…"
"Nothing much, just thinking back of my life choices," James replied, trying to work up his courage.
"Remember Anne!" Sprig called out from the hiding spot nearby where he was currently hiding alongside Hop Pop and Ivy, "You must believe! You must feel the music!"
"He's right. We can do this," Anne said, her face filling with determination and resolve. They had awakened such creatures, and now, they were going to send it back to sleep, once and for all.
The Tarrasquaton kept moving, stomping everything on its path without care, unwittingly approaching the six humans. Immediately, the six teens prepared to dance, sliding their feet outwards on the ground, bending down and closing their eyes, listening to the world around them, searching for the 'music' that Sprig and Hop Pop had described to them.
Until they found it.
The sound of the surrounding foliage, the water dropping on a mushroom, the woodpecker bugs hitting the trunks of the trees with their beaks. As all these sounds interconnected with each other, creating a rhythmic drum melody around them.
The Melody that Nature itself was whispering through their ears.
Then, the humans began to dance, repeating Sprig's steps one by one.
"That's it!" Sprig cheered, "Listen to the rhythm of nature all around you. Let it take hold of you~."
"It's…it's so magical…" Ivy murmured, looking as Sasha danced, side by side with her friends and companions.
The Tarrasquaton stopped walking, noticing the dance, his large yellow eyes widening as it focused on it, charmed by the quick movements of the six, as its hypnotizing effect began to take hold on its simple, animalistic mind.
"We are the leaves," One by one, the humans spoke.
"We are the water;"
"We're the soil;"
"We are the morning dew;"
"We're the warm kiss of the sun,"
"We're every flower blossoming;"
"We are…the Hunters!" All and six the humans said at once as they slammed their fist on the grounds, completely enthralled by the rhythmic of nature, as they flopped on the ground like fishes, jumped back up and hopped back and forth, puffing their cheeks and slapping them, every movement and movement contributing to enthrall more and more the gigantic reptile under, the Tarrasquaton's eyelids beginning to feel heavier and heavier, calm taking hold onto its mind as the unstoppable titan felt itself again on the brink of sleepiness.
"Yes, you're doing it!" Hop Pop almost cried in happiness, "You're doing it for real!"
"It's so beautiful…." Maddie admitted, her eyes focused on Marcy.
"That's my boy," Soggy Joe smiled adorably, as he looked at Jacob.
"Bri-bri-bom!" Akitsu chirped, in turn hypnotized by the dance.
The Tarrasquaton lowered his head, as it kept watching the humans dance, blinking more and more, its eyelids becoming heavier with every passing minute, until-
BOOM! The giant tortoise dropped on the ground as it finally fell asleep once again.
"You did it, guys!" Sprig jumped out of its hiding place and hurried to hug Anne, "You did it!"
"What?" Anne opened her eyes, interrupting the dance as she noticed their last-chance solution worked out for the best, "Whoo-hoo! We did it!"
"Take that, you ugly turtle!" Sasha called out, "Danced in your face!"
"Group hug!" Marcy proposed, only for the Tarrasquaton to start to snore loudly.
"Maybe it's better to keep the celebrations for once we're back to the camp", Felicia intervened. "Don't you agree, Hop Pop?"
"Yes indeed. Come on, family, let's skedaddle!"
"Got it!"
"Don't have to tell me twice."
"Run away, run away!"
(…)
It was now nighttime, and the reunited family and Soggy Joe, were gathered around the campfire. Amelia was feeding Bessie and Liptea while Akitsu munched one of her apples while Hop Pop, Anne and Sprig were working on a soup made with the herbs and mushrooms the boys had gathered earlier.
"I can't believe one Tarrasquaton survived this long!" Marcy said, writing new notes on her Journal. "And the fact its hide is impenetrable to your powers means it would be invulnerable to almost anything, even counting up Earth-made weapons."
"Wait, you're telling me that thing is like the Zillo Beast?" Jacob prompted, "That one creature which not even a lightsaber could pierce?"
"Nerd," Sasha rolled her eyes, the huge snoring of the Tarrasquaton still clearly audible from afar, "Are you sure it's safe to leave that thing in there?"
"As long as it keeps sleeping, it won't be an issue," Felicia tried to tranquilize her. "And I doubt any frog in their right mind would try to wake it up again. In a few years, the forest it devoured will grow again, new vegetation will grow over its shell once more."
"I have to admit, this was quite a memorable adventure," Soggy Joe commented. "And the best thing is that I could share it with you!"
"Then, how about some music to finish it with class?" Sprig took out his fiddle, Marcy smiling as she went to get hers.
"James, are you ok?" Amelia asked, noticing the British teen looking down at the campfire, "Don't tell me you're still worried about the giant turtle of doom!"
"No, actually," he replied, taking a deep breath. "To tell the truth, I'm more worried about Hoffanio: what happened to him? He ran away when the Tarrasquaton woke up, and we didn't see him again."
"Maybe the giant turtle squashed him for good!" Polly suggested.
"Nah, I know Hoffanio, he's got thick skin, so I doubt he would meet his end despite the circumstances. I'll look out for him, but this time, I have reason to believe he won't mess with you ever again…"
(…)
"What was that?! I was already here! Which way do I go?!" Hoffanio kept running in fear, having lost his equipment and everything he could use to orientate himself in the darkness-covered wilderness, as the bright eyes of large predators kept following him, the nature who he had hunted for so many years now hunting him. "Oh, I'm lost! I'm hopelessly lost! Someone, please: famous hunter require assistance! Please, HEEEEELLLPPPP!"
Unknown to the human and their families, two things would never happen again after that day. No Amphibian hunter would harass them again… and Hoffanio would never be seen again. The greatest hunter of Amphibia disappeared, quickly forgotten and unmissed by everyone. The only hint of his fate would be found much time later, when his iconic hat was found by a traveler among the remains of some unidentified predator's latest meal.