Chapter 7:

Preparations for the Journey Ahead

The first day of spring had arrived in Wartwood. For many people, the second season of the year opens up a slew of new opportunities, such as growing crops that are seasonal specific, participating in activities that take advantage of the warm and serene atmosphere, seeing the sights where the flora, especially the flowers, are at their most graceful state in order to spread their blossomed beauty across the land, and so much more.

For the Plantars, and especially for Anne, the arrival of spring meant that they are now able to proceed what they were supposed to be doing since the Thai-American human's arrival in Amphibia: To journey outside of Frog Valley and into the whole of Amphibia to find a way to get Anne back home.

It was the middle of the day in the Plantars' farm. Anne was sitting on the roof on top of the front door, enjoying the sights of the flowers blooming around the farm while listening to her music on her smartphone. Her phone had started playing one of her favourite K-Pop songs, leading to her bobbing her head to the beat of the music.

She was in the middle of her zone, when she caught a sight of the Plantars family snail, Bessie, entering the farm with Hop Pop and Polly at the reins, pulling what seemed to be a large, house-looking wagon.

"Whoa." Anne simply said as she removed her earphones, put away her smartphone and attempted to drop down from the roof to the ground safely, only to slip up and fall on her butt in the process.

"Ow…!" she moaned as she stood up and rubbed her sore behind, while walking towards Bessie who stopped in front of the house. "Hey, Hop Pop. Whatcha got there?" she asked, pointing at the wagon behind Bessie.

"Impressive, huh?" Hop Pop said as he and Polly got off of Bessie to join the brown-haired human. "This here's an all-terrain, custom-modeled family wagon. Calling it the fwagon. Hehe."

"Fwagon? Really?" Anne said, unamused.

"Cheap too." Hop Pop added.

"The previous owner died in it." Polly interjected in a spooky tone, though it failed to scare anyone.

"Where's Sprig, by the way?" Hop Pop asked, as he noticed that his grandson was nowhere to be seen outside. "Is he still inside of the house?"

"Oh yeah." Anne replied. "He's been sorting through all the clothes that you got for him yesterday. He's definitely taking his sweet time with it, now that I think about it."

"Ah, I don't fault him for that. Trying to find a new look for someone his age can be quite a challenge in this day and age. Is it something that happens in your world as well, Anne?"

"Oh definitely." Anne confirmed. "Girls can take forever to decide what to wear, based on how cute, pretty and dependable they want to present themselves."

"Is it the same for you?" Polly asked.

"Eh." Anne shrugged. "I usually don't worry too much over how I look. I just wear anything that feels comfy to me."

"I guess that explains why you're still wearing that same shirt and skirt from when you got here. And still missing a shoe, for some weird reason."

As the three of them discussed the intricacies of an individual's looks, the front door of the house got swung open and a certain, orange-haired human stepped out from there, earning the attention of the rest of the Plantars family. They were pleasantly surprised by what they were seeing from him.

Sprig made his appearance wearing a new set of clothes that fit his human form, instead of the temporary one provided by his best friend. To begin, his bottom clothing consisted of a pair of brown, leather boots with white socks, and a pair of black shorts with a brown leather pouch strapped around the right pant leg where he stored his slingshot.

For the upper clothing, he wore a white shirt and a short-sleeved green jacket with a hood. He had just finished adjusting the pair of brown, fingerless leather gloves on his hands. And to complete his new look, he pulled out his iconic green hat and goggles and put them on his head, hiding most of his orange hair in the process while leaving the bangs sticking out.

"Whoa…" It was the first sound that came out of Anne's mouth to express her reaction to his new appearance.

"Okay, not gonna lie. I'm digging this new look." Polly admitted.

Hop Pop chuckled. "Once again, the tailor outdid herself with this one. Definitely worth every copper."

"Hey, guys!" Sprig waved at his family.

"Hey, Sprig!" Anne said as she approached her best friend. "Loving the new look there!"

"Thanks, Anne. I wasn't sure if the new clothes would work out for me, but now that I got dressed and took a good look at myself, it almost looks like I'm back in my old, favourite clothes from back when I was my usual frog self. With a few tweaks here and there, of course."

Anne took a closer look at Sprig's new clothes, moving herself around him to inspect every small detail on him to see if there was nothing that betrayed what she saw. After spending a short amount of time doing that, the Thai-American girl made her conclusion. "What else can I say, other than it suits you nicely, dude?"

Sprig blushed at her compliment. "Hehe. Thanks."

The boy then noticed the wagon near his grandfather and littler sister. He let out an astonished gasp. "Whoa, Hop Pop! What is this thing?" he asked, walking towards the wagon.

"You like it, boy? I just bought ourselves a cheap, family wagon. Fwagon for short." Hop Pop replied.

"Wow! A fwagon!" Sprig exclaimed.

"Sprig, you can't be seriously calling it that." Anne said, still unamused by the shortened name for family wagon.

"So wait, why did you bought it in the first place, Hop Pop?"

"Well," Hop Pop started. "With the snow melted and the mountain pass open, we can finally travel outside the valley! To Newtopia!"

"Oh my frog!" Sprig exclaimed once again, expressing excitement. "We're going to Newtopia?!"

"What's in Newtopia?" Anne asked.

"I'll show you." Hop Pop said. "Let's go inside of the fwagon. You two can check and see for yourselves what it has to offer first."

Sprig and Anne nodded, as they followed Hop Pop and Polly inside of the fwagon. Once inside, they looked around and were impressed with what they saw in there.

In Anne's point of view, the inside of the fwagon resembled an RV. Aside from the entrance that they entered from, there was another set of doors that lead to the back of the fwagon. The fwagon contained two beds, one at a corner left to the entrance, the other on the platform above. There was a table with benches located on the right of the door. And on the opposite side, there was the kitchen and a few assortment of furnitures, such as a bookshelf, for one.

Once they had enough time to look over the interior of the fwagon, Anne and Sprig joined Hop Pop and Polly at the table. Once everyone had gathered, Hop Pop pulled out a map and spread it open on the table, the map showing a diagram of the entire land of Amphibia.

"To answer your question, Anne," Hop Pop started, as he pointed at the castle located at the center of the land. "It's the beating heart of Amphibia. A bustling metropolis full of ancient knowledge, run by the wisest of newts. If anyone can help you get home, it's them!"

"Really? You think that Newtopia might hold the key to get me back home?" Anne asked, feeling hopeful from what she had been told.

"It's highly possible. There's only one way to find out for sure."

"I can't believe it. After three months of being stranded in Amphibia, we're finally starting to get somewhere! Not only that, but maybe out on the road, we'll find Marcy." Anne turned her head towards the orange-haired boy. "And at the same time, we'll find the core ingredients for Maddie's potion to turn you back to normal."

"Yeah, you're right, Anne." Sprig nodded. At the mention of the witch frog, the boy remembered that they have yet to receive any news from her concerning the ingredients for the potion. "Oh right! I probably should check up on Maddie and see if she found anything about it!" he said as he stood up from the table and was about to leave the fwagon. "Be back soon, guys!"

"Hold on just a minute, boy!" Hop Pop stopped him from leaving by grabbing him by the wrist. "You do realize that you'll be going to the main square to get to Maddie, right? I'm worried because it's only been a couple of days since the townsfolk almost kicked you out of town, and it's still possible that they might do it again."

"I know, Hop Pop. Not gonna lie, I still don't feel a hundred percent safe walking around town with everyone looking at me like I'm some kind of a criminal. But I need to know from Maddie what kind of things that we need to find before we leave the valley. Plus, staying cooped up in the house gets a bit boring after a while. This growing boy needs some fresh air, you know?"

"I understand, Sprig. But I can't help but worry for your safety. Maybe I should come with you, just to make sure."

"No need, Hop Pop!" Polly said, as she hopped on her big brother's head. "I can tag along with him to town. You know how good I am at fending people off if they even look at me funny. When I'm around, you can be sure that no one's gonna lay a finger on him."

"Feels kinda weird to have my little sister look out for me, instead of the other way around…" Sprig commented.

"Well, alright then. I'll leave Sprig's wellbeing in your hands, Polly." Hop Pop conceded. "Oh, now that I think about it, while you're at it, can you kids go and buy some supplies for us? I feel like what we've got here might not be enough to last us the whole trip to Newtopia."

"Sure, Hop Pop." Sprig nodded, as he was handed some money from his grandfather, as well as a list of items that they need to get.

"Now, be back before sunset, so that you have time to pack your things, kids. Because tonight, we leave for Newtopia!"

"You got it!" Polly said. "Let's go already, Sprig!"

"Right!" Sprig nodded as he and Polly left the fwagon to depart towards the main square of Wartwood to accomplish the tasks of getting supplies for the road, and especially to inquire Maddie about what she might have found about what they need for the cure.

Anne looked through the window of the fwagon and watched the two siblings disappearing towards the village. "Hm. Maybe I should come along with him too. Wouldn't hurt to have another pair of helping hands, right?"

"I thought so too, but I'm sure having Polly around is more than plentiful, in my opinion." Hop Pop said. "Besides, you and I should start preparing things on our end."

"Yeah, true." Anne nodded. "So, what do you want me to do, Hop Pop?"

"Well, Anne, since you don't have a lot to pack, could you give Chuck the spare key when he swings by?" The elderly frog asked, as he handed out the key to the house to the brown-haired girl.

"Who's Chuck?"

"We played bugball together, remember?"

"Umm…" Anne tried to remember if she ever met that Chuck person before.

"He grows tulips." Hop Pop added.

"Mmmm… Nope, not ringing a bell." Anne said, having given up on remembering Chuck no matter how hard she tried. "Why does he need a key?"

"Because I hired him to protect the house from all the things waiting to destroy it."

"Wait, what?!"

The Plantars siblings reached the main square of Wartwood. They figured that they should go and see Maddie first before getting supplies for the trip at the Grub & Go store. Around that time, the witch frog should be helping out her father at the bakery, so there should not be any issue with crossing paths with her.

Along the way, Sprig and Polly started discussing together about how they should prepare for the trip.

"So, Sprig," Polly spoke. "Since you probably only need to pack in your new clothes, while the only thing I'm packing is my bucket, what else do you think you wanna bring along for the trip?"

"Good question, Polly." Sprig replied. "It's gonna be our first trip outside of the valley. So whatever I'm bringing with me, I'll have to think about it with a huge amount of consideration."

"I know I'm definitely bringing my good old flail. I wouldn't ever pass up the chance of whacking my foes right in their stupid faces and send them running home like crybabies, especially if they're from outside of the valley. Fear me, infidels!"

"Well, if we're talking about weapons," The orange-haired boy pulled out his slingshot from the leather pouch. "My trusty slingshot never failed me before. I can always rely on Old Reliable to get the job done. Isn't that right, baby?"

"You bet it is, Sprig! I'm always here to save your skin, no matter what!" said his slingshot, which is just Sprig speaking in a high-pitched voice to simulate that it has sentience.

"Aww, Old Reliable! You're always my favourite!" Sprig affectionately rubbed his cheek against his slingshot. "Oh, who's a good girl? Who's a good girl? You are! You are!"

"Ahem!" The annoyed tadpole loudly cleared her throat.

"Oh! Sorry, Polly." The orange-haired boy apologized, as he put his slingshot back in the pouch. "Getting way ahead of myself, there."

"You think? I hope that you don't act like this with all of your other slingshots back home."

"Haha… Of course not." Sprig denied, as he nervously averted his eyes to the side. "I'm not some kind of weirdo who thinks talking to his slingshots is normal and cool. That's crazy…"

As they continued to make their way towards the bakery, the Plantar boy overheard whispers from nearby. Turning his head towards the sound of the whispers, he saw a few frogs standing nearby, and they all looked at him with distrust.

"Hey, it's that human boy from the other day."

"What was the mayor thinking, keeping him here? It's no wonder why we didn't vote for him during the last election."

"I don't care if Anne trusts this guy. We don't want another Sasha incident on our hands, here."

Sprig frowned as he listened to the frogs voicing their distrust behind his back. Then, he heard different whispers from another source, causing him to turn his attention towards it and his gaze fell on another group of frogs talking amongst themselves.

"Is it a good idea letting this Twig person walk around freely?"

"Anne is a sweet girl. But I question her choice of friends back in her world."

"Hey, he's looking our way. Let's get out of here."

The group of frogs scattered from the spot. When Sprig turned his head back towards the front, he noticed that a mother and her child were walking in their direction.

The mother noticed the boy and led her child around the Plantars sibling, keeping their distance as far away from them as possible. "Don't look, Timmy. This suspicious boy is nothing but trouble."

Sprig watched as the mother and child fled from him, as he slowed his pace to a stop. He let out a despondent sigh, as he sadly gazed down on the ground. He was expecting it, but it didn't help him feel even a little bit better about his situation. His only consolation was that he now understood how Anne felt during her first month in Wartwood.

"Ah, who cares what they think?" Polly said, tapping her brother on the forehead in an attempt to snap him out of his misery. "Give them a month, and they'll eventually have to accept you as one of their own, as long as you do the boring thing of staying out of trouble."

"Polly, you know our town motto is 'slow to accept, even slower to respect,' right?" Sprig reminded her.

"Well, yeah. But if you really want to earn their trust early on, then you're gonna have to do it your own way. That's how Anne did it, a couple of months ago, using her own Anne way."

"Easy for you to say… I feel like the only way that I can get people to stop being scared of me is if I turn back to normal. Taking any other way's gonna drag me down until my whole spirit gets crumbled into dust before anyone can even begin to accept me."

The Plantar boy let out another sigh. "Let's just go and be done with it so we can get back home faster. Makes me glad that we're leaving the valley tonight…"

He turned himself towards the direction of the bakery. But once he had done so…

"AAAAAAHH!" Both Sprig and Polly screamed and jumped at the sudden sight of a creepy creature.

"Hi, you two." greeted Maddie, standing in front of the siblings.

"Oh hey, Maddie." Sprig instantly recovered from his fright and greeted back the witch frog.

"Hey, Maddie!" Polly waved at the blue frog. "We were just about to come and see you!"

"I had a feeling, judging from how you guys looked like you're going to the direction of my place." Maddie said.

"So did you find out where we might find those core ingredients?" The human boy asked.

"I did." The witch frog confirmed.

Before she could elaborate on it, Maddie took a look at her surroundings and noticed that quite a few people around them were looking at them, specifically at the boy they know as 'Twig,' with some form of hostility.

"But it might be safer if we talk about it at the bakery, if it's alright with you."

The Plantar siblings in their turn noticed the weird looks that they have gotten from the townsfolk, and decided that it was a good idea to take up on Maddie's offer.

"Sure, Maddie. Lead the way." Sprig said.

Maddie nodded before she, Sprig and Polly began to walk towards the direction of the Flour and Daughters Bakery, both to shake off the townsfolk's gaze and to discuss the cure to turn the Plantar boy back to normal without anyone finding out about the true circumstances behind the human newcomer 'Twig Lantern.'

Some time had passed since the trio had started walking towards their destination. The bakery was within sight, so they did not have to walk much further before they get down to business.

"So," Maddie began to ask Sprig. "I heard that you go under the name 'Twig Lantern' recently, right? Is it an attempt to separate your human self from your real self in public?"

"That's right." Sprig confirmed. "Anne's the one who came up with it, so you can thank her for that. I never thought about giving myself a fake name until the mayor asked for it, so thank goodness that Anne came to my rescue."

"I still think it's a dumb name, honestly." Polly interjected. "'Twig Lantern' sounds way too close to his actual name. I'm surprised that everyone didn't make the connection between the two in the first place."

"I think 'Twig' is a good name." Maddie said.

"Same here." Sprig said. "It kinda has an outdoor, nature-like feel to it. Like, it gives the impression that I have a big knack at exploring whatever nature has in store for me and stuff."

"Well, it certainly suits you." The blue frog smiled at the boy.

"You two can't be serious." The bow-wearing tadpole stared at the human and frog with sheer disbelief after hearing their opinion on the name. "Well, whatever. Let's agree to disagree. But if I get turned into a human somehow, don't you dare give me a stupid name like 'Molly Lantern,' or something like that."

"No promises." Sprig simply said. His sister could only grumble at his response.

The trio reached the vicinity of the bakery. Maddie continued to lead the Plantar siblings further down the path, until they got to the back of her house.

"This should do it." Maddie said as she stopped and turned to the siblings. "We won't have to worry about anyone overhearing our conversation from this point forward."

"So did you went to the Historic Wartwood Town Archives?" Sprig asked.

"I did." she nodded.

"And I'm guessing you went the same way as we do by dropping down from the skylight, right?" Polly asked.

"Huh. Actually, I never realized that there was another way to get inside of the archives. I just went through the entrance, like normal."

"Wait, really?" Sprig raised a confused eyebrow. "But the door to the archives is practically busted. How did you get in from there?"

"Well, after trying and failing to use some of the spells that I know on the door, the gate is surprisingly resilient, I might add," Maddie explained. "I just say 'frog this' and blew it open using boomshrooms."

"Oooh, I like the way you think, girl!" Polly complimented the witch frog's chaotic and unorthodox method of getting inside of the archives.

"Ok, we're getting a bit sidetracked here." Sprig noted, attempting to steer the conversation towards what was important. "Maddie, what did you find in there?"

"After I spent a couple of days reading all of the necessary information in the archives, I managed to get a good grasp on what the core ingredients should be and where we might find them." Maddie explained as she pulled out a paper scroll containing what she had documented and gave it to the orange-haired boy. "There are seven ingredients listed here, and I wrote down the approximate location of each and who or what is most likely to have them."

"For real?" Sprig quickly took the scroll from the blue frog's hands and opened it up to look through its contents, his spirits becoming more positive after hearing what she had to say. "Oh, thank you, Maddie! We might have a real shot at turning me back to my normal, cute frog self! You're the best!"

Maddie slightly blushed at the boy's compliment, shifting her gaze away from him as she cleared her throat. "Hm. I-it's no big deal."

"Wow, there's a lot of names and places that I don't recognize." Polly commented as she skimmed through the list, until she spotted one particular ingredient whose location seemed noteworthy. "Hey! It says here that we might find one of the ingredients somewhere in Newtopia! We're going to Newtopia!" she pointed at the info of that specific ingredient.

"Oh yeah! You're right, Polly!" Sprig exclaimed.

"You guys are going to Newtopia? That's convenient." Maddie said.

"Yeah. We didn't know that we're going there until Hop Pop told us earlier today. So we're definitely going to be on the lookout for the ingredient when we get there."

Sprig continued to look through the list in an attempt to memorize what he was supposed to be looking for. Then, he noticed one small piece of information that goes against what the witch frog had told them.

"Hey, Maddie? You said that there are seven ingredients in total, right?" Sprig asked. "Well, I counted and there's actually eight in there."

"Oh right." Maddie said, as she realized what he meant. "You must be talking about the ingredient that has a lot of question marks on it."

The Plantar boy searched through the scroll for what she was talking about and found the information of an ingredient that, as she said, had a lot of question marks written all over it.

"The Moss Man's Flower?" he read outloud before he looked at Maddie with a skeptical look on his face. "Maddie, you don't seriously believe that the Moss Man exists, do you?"

"I don't." Maddie replied. "Everyone knows that the Moss Man is merely a myth. But I added that particular info anyway because it seemed interesting. According to what I've read so far, the Moss Man's Flower has an effect that allows magical concoctions of any kind to unleash its true potential, in theory."

"So… What does that mean?"

"Well, if we take the cure that we're trying to make, for example, the flower would accelerate the process of turning you back into a frog, from about a day to instant."

"Ahh, gotcha." Sprig nodded in understanding.

"In any case, the flower is just an optional ingredient to add. There's no point in stressing yourselves over it, since it most likely doesn't exist anymore."

"Got it."

"And before I forget," The blue frog pulled out a map and spread it open for the Plantar siblings to see. "I'm also giving you the map of Amphibia and marked down the locations of where you might find the ingredients on it. It wouldn't hurt to have a visual guide for your troubles."

"Thanks, Maddie!" Polly took the map from Maddie's hand and started to analyze everything that she had marked. "Oh wow. Some of those places are pretty far from where we are. You think Hop Pop can take us there during the trip?"

"I dunno, Polly." Sprig replied as he took a peak at the map. "I mean, I would really like to go to those places and find what we need, but isn't the harvest happening in a month or so? I don't think Hop Pop would want us to stay outside of Wartwood for too long."

"Ah, we'll figure it out later." Polly shrugged. "At worst, you'll have to wait a bit longer before you can turn back to normal."

"Hrmm… The last thing that I want is to wait any longer than I should…" Sprig groaned. He turned his attention back to Maddie. "Maddie, thank you so much for your help with finding what ingredients that we need to be on the lookout for."

"Like I said, it's no big deal." Maddie said. "I've done everything I can with the short amount of time that we got before you leave. Now, it's all up to you to find what you're looking for. Hopefully, you're not going to just forget about your task during your trip, are you?"

"Not this time." Sprig shook his head as he stashed away both the list and the map on his person. "I may have a short attention span, but this is too important for me to just let it slip out of my mind. We're going to find those ingredients, and when we do, I can go back to being Sprig Plantar the cute frog of Wartwood in no time."

"Alright." the witch frog nodded. "In the meantime, I'm going to continue to research my books to find out what I'm supposed to do and what method I should be using to create the cure."

She looked up to the sky and noted the position of the Sun, as if she was using it as a measure of time. "But not today. Because if I got this right, the spell that I used to keep myself awake for three days should be wearing off in a second."

"Say what now?"

Before Sprig could ask what she meant by that, Maddie suddenly dropped to the ground.

"Maddie?!" Both Sprig and Polly shouted her name, as the alarmed boy quickly went and picked her up in his arms.

They both checked for some worrisome signs on the blue frog, but the only thing that they found, besides the sore forehead, was that she was sleeping soundly. They let out a sigh of relief, now that they knew that Maddie was fine.

"Man, the dark arts is no joke." Sprig commented.

"Tell me about it." Polly agreed. "So what should we do with her?"

"I'll take it from here." A gruff voice was heard. Turning their attention towards the voice, they were met with the sight of Maddie's father standing nearby.

Mr. Flour walked up to the young children and took Maddie from Sprig's arms to his own. "I'll bring Maddie back up to her room so that she can sleep. You two go ahead and handle whatever it is that you're about to do."

"Got it. Thanks, Mr. Flour."

Mr. Flour grunted before he proceeded to get back inside of the bakery with his eldest daughter in his arms.

"Well, we got what we need from Maddie." Polly said. "Now let's go and get some supplies for the trip, Sprig!"

"You got it!"

The Plantar siblings left the bakery after getting the necessary tools and information from the witch frog. With their remaining task being to gather supplies from the Grub & Go store, they only needed to walk back to the main square and go from there.

On their way back to the main square, Sprig pulled out the two scrolls and looked over their contents.

"Not that I doubt her, but you think Maddie got it right with the stuff that she told us about?" The purple tadpole asked her brother.

"She's the magic expert, so I trust her with this one." The orange-haired boy replied. "Also, I can't really explain it, but she looked really determined to turn me back to normal. I mean, this whole thing is my fault, but I think she feels a bit responsible for what happened to me."

"I guess that might be it." Polly was content with settling with Sprig's assumptions. Though, she cannot help but think that Maddie might have another reason for helping the boy out. One that Polly found to be too icky for a child her age.

Her train of thought got interrupted when she caught a sight of something coming their way at full speed. Realizing that her brother hadn't stopped walking, she looked down and saw that he was too preoccupied with the two scrolls to notice his surroundings.

"Sprig, watch where you're going!"

"Huh?" The older brother put down the map and finally noticed that something was charging at him from the side. "Whoa!" He quickly took a step back before the charging object could collide into him. He and Polly managed to take a glimpse of what it might be.

It was a person carrying a bag of tools and weapons on their back, on top of pushing a large barrel containing an ominous green liquid on its side. It only took the sight of the person's bush-like brown hair for the siblings to recognize who it was.

"Anne?"

"Oh hey, you guys!" Anne shouted, waving at Sprig and Polly once she recognized who she ran past by. She showed no sign of stopping, however, as she continued to push the large barrel towards the direction of the Plantar farm. "Sorry, can't chat right now! There's a lot of prep that I need to do back home! See you there! Byeee!"

Sprig and Polly only had time to wave her goodbye, before she quickly disappeared from their sight.

"Huh. Wonder what brings her here, in the first place?" Sprig wondered.

"Maybe Hop Pop asked her to get even more supplies." Polly assumed. "Can't be too sure when we're off on a big adventure away from home."

"Yeah, you're right. Let's not make them wait any longer, okay?"

Brushing off Anne's sudden appearance as Hop Pop asking more of his grandchildren's assistance, the Plantar siblings resumed their pace towards Grub & Go without further delay.

Little did the Plantars know, by the time Sprig and Polly return home, chaos would ensue, of the vegetable variety.

End of Chapter