Chapter 9:

Restrictions

"Wait… You don't remember anything?" The orange-haired boy asked, perplexed.

"No, I don't." The pink frog girl shook her head.

"Seriously? Nothing at all?"

"None." She shook her head once more.

"And how long were you like this?"

"Ever since I found myself here."

"No frogging way…!"

Sprig and Leif were sitting on the floor of the empty house, facing each other, as they agreed to converse with one another in order to know who the other person is. The Plantar boy was the first person to initiate a series of questions to the frog girl, eager to know who she was and her reason for being in that strange, floating island in the first place.

His first question to her was where she was from. His second was if she had any friends or family. And the third was what her hobbies were.

She replied all of his questions with the same answer: She doesn't know.

It was then that he discovered that Leif had amnesia. Meaning, no matter how much she tried to search her mind, she was unable to recall anything about herself. The only thing that she remembered was her name.

"And… And you're sure about this? Really sure?" Sprig asked.

"You're free to take my word for it." Leif said, as she lowered her gaze and closed her eyes. "But this is honestly all that I can tell you about myself, as far as my memory serves."

"And you've been stuck in this place for how long, again?"

"… I lost track of time myself. It's possible that it's been centuries. I don't know."

"Oh my frog…" Sprig placed his palm on his head, as he had a hard time processing the reality of Leif's situation. "I'm so sorry, Leif. I… I can't imagine how it must've felt, going this long without remembering who you are."

"It wasn't a pleasant experience early on, I can tell you that much. But eventually, I just stopped thinking about everything and just sat here, in this empty house. Maybe I convinced myself that it's a way to pass the time. Well, it sort of helped. Now, I don't even know how long I've been sitting like this."

"Oh Leif…" Sprig was sadden by the circumstances surrounding her.

"Now you know that it's pointless for us to talk." Leif stated, as she moved her gazed back up to look at the boy. "I have nothing to share with you. No life experiences to speak of. No apparent quirks that I can show. No nothing. I think it's better if you just leave, so neither of us can waste any more time."

Once again, the frog girl was all too willing to have him leave her alone. It was astonishing to see her give up so easily, when they just started to make progress on become friends, or at the very least, tolerable acquaintances.

Sprig was not one to give up that easily. Not by a long shot.

"Well, to you, maybe it is pointless for me to ask you stuff, when you have no memories." he said. "But you're forgetting one little thing."

"And what's that?"

He pointed both of his thumbs towards him, as he flashed her a grin. "This guy! You haven't asked me a thing yet!"

Leif sighed. The boy's insistence on conversing with her was starting to get tiresome. "Can't you just take a hint? I don't want to talk."

"Come on, Leif! You're talking to a guy who has loads of life experiences, tons of quirks that people fawn over, and more! You gotta be at least curious about me, right?"

"What does it matter? It's not like I can leave this place and apply what I learn from you anyway. It's just completely pointless."

"Oh, so you really ARE curious about me! We're getting somewhere!"

Leif threw an annoyed glare at Sprig. "You're really asking to get kicked out of here, aren't you?"

"No, but I'm definitely sensing that you want to force me out, if I don't stop nudging you to do what I want you to do."

"You're asking for it." Leif stood up from the ground and her eyes turned blue once more with a single blink, as she prepared to shove the boy through the door.

"Ok, ok, I get it!" Sprig rapidly waved his hands defensively in front of him in an attempt to alleviate the tension between them. "You want me out. I get it. I swear that I'll be out of your hair in a second."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming right about now." Leif noted.

"But," Sprig continued, proving the frog girl correct. "Before I go, please. Just ask me just one, tiny question. And after that, I'm gone. Can you at least do that, Leif?"

Leif's glare at the boy intensified. "… Why are you so insistent? Nothing is going to change, whether I learn a bit about you or not. What do you want from me, anyway?"

"Isn't it obvious? I want us to be friends!" Sprig replied. He then turned his head away, as his expression became solemn. "And… I wanna help you."

"I didn't ask for your help."

"You say that, but you already showed me that you need help."

"When?"

"When you bothered to answer my questions."

Leif widened her eyes, silently reacting in shock at the boy somehow managing to see through her facade.

Sprig turned his head back towards her, as his eyes showed how serious he was about it. "You don't like me, that's clear to see. It hurts pretty bad, to be honest, but it can't be helped. But I know when someone needs help, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help a person in need."

He lowered his gaze, as he thought about the most important person in his life and how she constantly avoided talking about her troubles so that the people she cared about wouldn't worry, no matter how painful it could get. "One of the things that I hate the most is not being allowed to do anything to help the people that you care about."

Leif stared at the orange-haired boy with a look of sympathy. "… You're speaking from experience, right?"

Sprig nodded.

Leif turned away, as she contemplated the options that was presented to her. On one hand, neither of them would gain anything from learning one another, one person more so than the other. It was a waste of time, so it would be better if they just stop there and leave each other be.

On the other hand, she could not deny that, on the back of her mind, she was at the very least curious about the boy who suddenly showed up out of nowhere after she had spent an eternity alone in that place. It was clear that he was not looking for trouble, and he had a great desire to help out a person in need, even when said person never asked for it, or probably did not realize that they needed it in the first place.

Regardless, even if she were to kick him out of there, just as she did before, she had a feeling that he would return with the same desire to help her.

She let out a resigned sigh. She blinked her eyes as they returned to normal, and she sat back down on the floor.

"Fine." she said.

Sprig instantly perked up at her finally going through with his suggestion.

"Just one question, right?" she asked. "And you swear that you'll leave?"

"Yep." Sprig nodded, as he raised his hand up. "Honesty first. It's a code that we Plantars live by. And sure, you can't taste honesty. But if you could, it'd taste like a Plantar vegetable stand."

Leif blinked her eyes with indifference. "… I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, sorry." Sprig chuckled sheepishly, as he scratched the back of his head. "It's something that my Hop Pop always tells me and my little sister. But that's besides the point. Shoot me with a question, Leif!"

"Hm. Fine. I'll go with this." She slowly pointed at him. "… What are you?"

Sprig chuckled at the obviousness of the question. "That's a silly thing to ask. But I'll take it." He proudly pointed his thumb at himself, as his lips formed a wide grin. "I'm a frog! Just like you!"

Leif stared at him with an unamused expression on her face.

It took the boy a few seconds to wonder what was wrong with what he said before realizing the contradiction. "Oh. Right. Human magic." he said, as he looked at his human hand.

"What's this about magic?" Leif asked, becoming very slightly interested.

"Well, it's a long story. But I'm not kidding when I said that I'm a frog." Sprig explained. "It's just that, a few days ago, I accidentally got splashed with a magic potion made by a friend of mine. It transformed me into a completely different species overnight, and now, I look like this. A human being." He spread his arms apart to present his human form to the frog girl.

"A human being…" Leif repeated the boy's last few words in whisper. She started to examine with her eyes the Plantar boy's human appearance a bit more closely, and noted the differences between a frog and a human, such as their contrasting height, their anatomy, their skin colour, anything that she could identify while comparing herself to him.

"Hmm… Humans have an interesting look to them." she concluded her thoughts.

"I know, they look hideous!" Sprig gave his bias opinion. "That's not the only thing that upsets me! They can't jump high or far, they can't climb up walls easily, they don't even have long tongues! The only thing that they got going for them, compared to frogs, is that they're warmblooded! How lame is that!"

"From how you describe them, humans don't seem all that amazing, in terms of survival."

"I know, right! That's why I wanna find a way to turn myself back into my adorable, beloved frog self! Right now, I'm on a journey to do just that!"

Sprig's rant about how terrible being a human being is came to an end, as he exhausted his complaints to Leif. All that was left, however, was his positive view about being turned into a human, as his facial expression softened.

"But I'm not gonna lie… Even though being human sucks, I kinda wanna know what it's really like. Like, what makes human special in the same way that frogs are special."

Leif raised a curious eyebrow. "And what propels you to think that?"

"It's my best friend. She's a human being." he replied.

The surprised frog girl widened her eyes. "You have a human friend? How?"

"It's another long story. But basically, she came from another world, where humans are." he explained. "My family and I met her when she was lost and alone, after she got transported to our world. We decided to take her in, gave her shelter until she finds a way back home. Nobody could ever imagine that she'd gone on to become a part of the family, and that she and I became best buds."

Sprig lowered his gaze and smiled, looking fondly at the memories that he shared with his best friend.

"She helped me a lot when I was in trouble. She was there for me whenever I feel like total crud. She's… She's the greatest friend that anyone could ever asked for." he said. He then frowned, as he recalled the night that emotionally devastated his friend. "And… I still don't get why she's trying so hard to hide how miserable she is about a lot of things. Doesn't she realize that we're all here for her…?"

Leif watched as the boy let out his feelings about his best friend, intrigued by the variety of emotions that he exhibited when talking about his experience with her. His friend must have been a very special person, for him to talk about her in great length.

Sprig snapped out of his reminiscing, when he realized just how long he went on during the conversation. "Oh, sorry, Leif. I kinda went on a tangent, didn't I?" he smiled bashfully at the frog girl.

"You did." Leif said.

"Well, anyway, you asked me a question, and I answered. So… That means we're done." There was a pause between the two, before a teasing smile appeared on his face. "Unless you changed your mind and wanted me to stay here for a little while-."

"You swore, remember?" she bluntly reminded him. "What was it that you told me before? Something about honesty first or something?"

"Well, it was worth a try." Sprig shrugged as he backed down. He stood up from the floor and patted off the dirt from his shorts. "It's not much, but I'm really glad that I got to know you like this, Leif."

"I assure you that the feelings aren't mutual." Leif said. She turned her head away to avoid having the boy see that her face might betray what she said. "But… It's interesting, to say the least."

"Okay, cool." Sprig smiled. "Well, I guess this is the part where I get out of your hair." He looked around to see if there was something that he could do to respect the frog girl's wishes. He then looked back at her with an awkward smile. "Except… I don't know how."

"… You don't know how to leave?" she asked with exasperation.

"I mean, I am dreaming of being in this place, right?" he pondered for the both of them. "If so, then I'll be able to leave when I wake up, at some point. But I can't figure out when the time comes. So… Guess that means I'll have to stick around until then." he shrugged, as he found his predicament to be less bothersome, since it meant he'll interact with Leif some more.

"Or I may have another way for you to leave." Leif suggested.

"Please don't kick me out. It kinda hurts last time."

"I'm not going to do that. Not this time anyway." Leif pointed at the entrance behind Sprig. "See the door, there? When I shoved you through the door, the last time you came here, you somehow disappeared into the light. I figured that's how you managed to leave this place."

"Now that you mention it, I think this is when I woke up last time too." Sprig said, as he remembered how his last visit went. "So, if I walk through the door, I leave and wake up from my dream?"

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

"Well, if you say so."

Sprig turned around to face the door, as he only needed to take a few steps forward to be in reach of the entrance. As he had his hand on the doorknob, he looked back at the pink frog girl one more time.

"You think we'll see each other again?"

"I hope not." Leif said. "But since you claimed that this is the third time you showed up in this place out of nowhere, and there's apparently no pattern as to how you'll appear the next time, I don't think neither of us have a choice in the matter."

"Well, in that case…" Sprig threw a smile in her way, as he waved farewell to her with his free hand. "See you next time, Leif!"

He turned his head back towards the door, as he turned the doorknob and pulled the door open. He shielded his eyes with his hand, as he was met with a blinding light coming from the outside.

The orange-haired boy slowly moved his hand towards the light, and when he saw that nothing happened to it past the doorway, he proceeded to walk forward, until his entire being was enveloped by the light.

The light became brighter as a result. Leif shielded her own eyes with her hands, when it happened. And once the light gradually dimmed into nothing, she lowered her hands down and saw that the boy had disappeared. There was no sign of him past the front door, from where she was sitting. It seemed to confirm her suspicions on how he was able to leave the island.

"Sprig Plantar…" she whispered his name to herself, as she was left wondering just what kind of person he was. "Such an irritating, yet interesting boy…"

Sprig woke up from his nap, his first sight upon opening his eyes being the ceiling of the fwagon.

He sat up from the bed, stretched his arms back and let out a yawn, as he wondered how long he was out for.

"Mm… What a dream I just had…" he moaned, as he rubbed his eyes. His latest dream was quite an interesting experience, as he remembered finding himself in a strange place, where he…

Where he…

"… Huh? Why can't I remember…?"

He realized that his recollection of his dream was a complete blur. No matter how hard he tried to focus on remembering it, it was impossible to make out what happened. The only thing that he could recall was that he was talking to someone, and that was all that he could decipher.

In fact, that was the second time that he had a dream that he could not remember.

"Hey, Sprig!" He heard Anne's voice calling to him. He raised his head up and saw his best friend poking her head through the hatch. "You still napping, dude?"

"No, no, I just woke up." he replied. He decided to push aside his concerns over not remembering his dream for another time.

"Ok, cool." Anne said. "Just wanna tell you that we're about to pass the sign that says we're leaving the valley."

Sprig gasped with excitement. "Does that mean what I think it means?!"

"See for yourself. Come on!" Anne pulled her head from the hatch, but kept it open for her friend to leave through there.

The orange-haired boy shot out of the bed, jumped towards the hatch and climbed up from there, before he and Anne rejoined their family at the bench with Hop Pop still at the reins and driving Bessie.

The family were currently traversing through the mountain pass. Just as Anne said, they had just passed a sign that says 'Now leaving the valley.' Sprig's excitement grew exponentially, as his first big journey was about to begin shortly. He was so excited that he easily disregarded the next sign that says 'May frog help you.'

"Here it is, kids!" Hop Pop announced. "The world outside of the valley is just beyond the mountains over there!"

"Oh my frog! This is exciting!" Sprig exclaimed, raising both fists up in the air. "This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened to anyone!" He shook his grandfather by the shoulders. "Hop Pop, aren't you excited?!"

"Careful, boy! I'm still driving here!" Hop Pop warned him.

Sprig picked up his sister from the bench, as he looked at her face to face. "What about you, Polly?! Are you excited?!"

"You bet I am!" Polly replied. "… Now put me down before I leave a permanent bite mark on your arms."

Sprig did so and proceeded to shake his best friend by the shoulders as well. "And Anne! You should be more excited, shouldn't you?!"

"I'm excited." Anne said, as she gently removed the boy's hands from her shoulders, keeping her excitement in check compared to him. "You know, it's just, there's a lot riding on this trip for me. It's the same for you too, remember?"

"I know, Anne." Sprig assured her, as his quest to turn himself back to normal was still a priority for him, in spite of his high burst of energy over their situation. "But I just can't help it!"

"I get it, dude. In any case, I wanna keep my expectations in- Whaaaaaaaa!"

Anne trailed off once they had exited through the mountain pass and she was presented with the scenery in front of her that left her looking awestruck and speechless with her jaw hanging from her mouth. It was the same thing for both Sprig and Polly.

Their first look at the world beyond Frog Valley was a large and beautiful landscape full of life, touched by the ray of the Sun. Across the path that extended into the far horizon, the grass had never been so lively before, there were large field crops everywhere near villages, big and small, and the flora were majestic, especially so during spring time.

Far from where they were, there was a large, magnificent lake that reflected the Sun ray off the surface to give it a blinding glow. Clean rivers flowed undisturbed across the land, splitting at a certain point and travelling towards a destination that is equally comparable. And to top it all off, when compared to the environment of the valley, there was an enormous volcano located at the far distance to where they were, truly giving them the impression that it was a whole new world starting from there.

Hop Pop had Bessie stopped some distance past the mountain pass exit. He allowed his grandchildren to bask in the wonders of Amphibia.

"Whoa…" Anne, Sprig and Polly all expressed their amazement of what they had witnessed.

"It's amazing. It's majestic." Anne commented. "It's… hurting my eyes." She rubbed her eyes that became strained from the blinding sight of the landscape.

"It's even better than I could've dreamed." Sprig said. He had a good feeling that his first trip outside of the valley would be magical, in every sense imaginable. "Let's go, Hop Pop! Keep driving and never look back!"

"Hold on, Sprig." Hop Pop said. "Before we proceed forward, I can't stress enough just how dangerous things are gonna get from here on out."

"I mean, we're already kinda expecting it, Hop Pop." Polly said. "It's why we went to the archives in the first place."

"Yes, you're right, Polly. But for your first experience in the outside world, you all still need to be on the lookout for any and all danger that might lurk beneath our feet. Relax even for a second, and you'll lose more than just your limbs. Thankfully, I have just the thing to keep ourselves safe."

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Anne asked.

"Let me guess. Is it a book? Please tell me it's not that." Polly plead, having a bad feeling about what's to come.

"Oh, not just any book…"

"… It's Hop Pop's Rules of the Road! Written by me, Hop Pop!" The elderly frog introduced a massive book to his grandchildren by slamming it down on the dining table inside of the fwagon.

Anne, Sprig and Polly all groaned.

"Now don't you start complaining about books, kids! They are an important asset to our livelihood! Why, without books…"

"… Our civilization would crumble into nothingness." Anne, Sprig and Polly all repeated in a bored tone what Hop Pop had told them over and over for the past few months.

"Exactly, disregarding your tone, there." Hop Pop said. "Now, the only way we'll get to Newtopia in one piece is if we follow these rules."

The elderly frog picked up the book and flipped through its pages before stopping at one page by random that he would use as an example.

"Like this one here. Rule number 98: 'Never strike a heroic pose on the fwagon.' It's a sign of hubris that invites disaster." he explained, eying at his grandson who was doing just that, standing on the bench heroically with one foot on the table and his hand positioned above his eyes, as he looked keenly outside through the window. His pose was identical to the picture example from the book.

Hop Pop pulled the curtains down to block the beautiful scenery outside.

"Hey, I was looking at it!" Sprig complained.

"Sorry, Sprig, but I'm going to have to ask you to behave and keep your sense of adventure in check. You're lucky that I didn't decide to bring in the booster seat with very sturdy belts to make sure of that. But on the bright side, I brought some colouring books for you to keep yourself busy."

"I dunno how I feel about this…"

"Now, here's another example." Hop Pop flipped some more pages from his book until he arrived at one that he deemed to be especially relevant. "Rule number 117: 'Never show your weapon to anyone.' We're not here to scare people, and scaring people is a sure way to have them chase us down and turn us into scarecrows."

"So I don't show them my weapon. Big deal." Polly shrugged. "At least I still have my weapon."

"Rule number 118: 'Never have a weapon, period.'"

"Hey!"

"This is starting to sound insane." Anne noted, feeling an overwhelming tiredness from hearing only a few of the rules spoken. "Hop Pop, how many rules did you wrote?"

"I'm up to rule number 344! And there are more to come!" Hop Pop proudly claimed.

"344?! That's totally unfair!" Sprig exclaimed.

"Watch your tongue, boy, because you're breaking rule number 345: 'No complaining.'"

"You just made that up just now!"

"In any case," Hop Pop ignored his grandson's accusation. "This book will help us survive this entire trip. We just need to stick to its rules."

With the rule book in hand, he climbed up through the ceiling hatch in order to get back to driving Bessie, but not before he looked back at his grandchildren inside one more time.

"Once we follow them religiously, we should have a safe and completely uneventful trip ahead of us. Okay, thanks, byeeee!" He then left them alone.

Sprig groaned in frustration. "A completely uneventful trip?! Hop Pop is missing the whole point!" He pulled the curtains back up so that the beautiful scenery of the outside world can be viewed once more. "All those adventures out there! The excitement of discovering the unknown! The thrill of experiencing a life outside of our own! We'll never be able to enjoy all of this because of these dumb rules!"

"Not much we can do." Anne spoke, having experienced that kind of restriction involving trips back then. "My dad was the same way back home. One time we drove to the Grand Canyon and didn't stop once."

"Well, I ain't gonna let this keep me down!" Polly shouted. "Just because we need to follow these rules doesn't mean that we can't have fun! There's still a lot of ways that we can do to make this trip worthwhile!"

"You know what, Polly? You're right!" Sprig said. "If anyone can figure out how to have fun with these rules, it's us! No way are we going to spend this whole trip to Newtopia doing nothing! We're gonna make this into something we'll never forget!"

"Right behind you, dude!" Anne said.

"Same here, brother!" Polly said.

"Newtopia, here we come!" The three of them all shouted, as they raised their fists towards the ceiling, all determined to make their first trip into the wonderful world of Amphibia into an everlasting memory that they can all look back fondly.

"Road rule number 29: 'No shouting!'" Hop Pop yelled from outside of the fwagon. "Marauders will follow the sound and steal your skin!"

Anne, Sprig and Polly all sighed in frustration.

This is going to be a long journey…

End of Chapter

Hey, everybody. HiddenKurogawa here with some stuff that I want to share with you.

You might have noticed during the first half of this chapter, as well as the end of the last chapter, that Leif's personality is a bit more aloof than what she is portrayed in the original show. It was an accident on my part. I didn't realize that I changed her personality until after I've written quite a bit of the interaction between her and Sprig, though I guess it was the result of me going with the flow of the story, if that makes sense.

But if I were to have an explanation for Leif's personality change, she starts out as an amnesiac in this one, and she's been alone for a very long time, more than enough time for her to mold her personality as a result. And when Sprig shows up unexpectedly, breaking her eternal lonesome? She would react with hostility towards anything that is just not possible in her point of view. At least, that's what I think.

That's all I want to say. Feel free to comment, follow and/or fave this story, though I would appreciate these very much. Until next time.