Chapter Four: A Fateful Partnership is Forged

Although Carl was still feeling nervous and frightened about the possibility of the meeting with the strange creature going badly, he found the strength in his heart to muster up the courage to walk to the front door of the Plantar family household and, subsequently, knock at it. However, before proceeding to knock at the front door, Carl decided to wait for a minute in order to prepare himself for the eventual meeting with the creature: he calmed himself down first with some breathing exercises, whereupon he would repeatedly take deep breaths and, then, exhale out deeply the air he had inhaled. This exercise only lasted for a minute, though, for afterwards he finally knocked at the Plantars' front door three times without hesitation.

Initially, Carl feared that his knocking would go unanswered by any of the inhabitants of the house, but, contrary to his expectations, he heard some footsteps coming towards the door, getting louder the more they approached his position. Eventually, the front door was opened by an elderly orange frog (the same elderly frog he's seen in his visions), the patriarch of the Plantar family, Hopediah Plantar (better known as Hop Pop by his family, his closest friends and the amphibians of Wartwood). However, he's not wearing his usual attire (consisting, mainly, in a grayish-green waistcoat, a yellow shirt, a light blue ascot, dark brown trousers and light brown socks), but is instead with his pajamas on. At first, Hop Pop wasn't seeing very clearly who his caller was: for, before Carl knocked at the door, every member of the Plantar family was sleeping quietly and soundly, and Hop Pop's eyes were weary-looking and his vision was still blurry, since Carl had interrupted his sleep.

So, as a consequence, Hop Pop confusedly asked who his night caller was "W-Who's there? And why are you bothering me at this ungodly hour?"

Hop Pop, however, didn't need to wait for long before his first question was answered, not by Carl replying back to him, but instead by Hop Pop firmly rubbing his eyes and finally being able to see the newt's figure standing right in front of him. Hop Pop's first reaction upon seeing Carl for the first time consisted mainly of a feeling of intrigue, mixed with a tid bit of being intimidated, due to the former not having encountered an amphibian so big and tall for a long time in his life.

"Well, now I see what kind of visitor you are. You're a very big fellow, that's for sure. But you still haven't answered my questions."

Carl had completely forgotten to speak back to the elderly frog's initial questions! So, feeling slightly embarassed for his mistake, he obeyed the old frog's request and shyly responded "G-Good evening, sir. My name is Carl, and I'm a traveller hailing from the town of Swamp Shiro."

"Well ... You came from very far away, then, didn't you? I must say I'm quite impressed: not only by the length of your journey, but also by the fact someone took an interest in a small and apparently uninteresting place such as Wartwood, when you had magnificent and beautiful Swamp Shiro at your doorstep! But, enough compliments, because you still haven't answered one question: why did you come here, and more specifically to my house, and what do you want from me? You do realize that it's one in the morning, and you woke me up in the middle of my sleep, don't you?" Hop Pop put an emphasis on the last part of his sentence with a pronounced annoyed grunt.

Carl felt slightly guilty over disturbing an old frog's sleep like he did, but, since he went through the trouble of waking him up to talk to the creature he saw in his visions, he might as well explain the purpose of his journey to Wartwood, and by extension to his house, as best as he could "Well, that's actually a little bit of a long story. The details are far too complicated to speak about them in a simple manner, so I'll try to simplify my side of the story as much as I can. But, you have to be patient and hear everything to end. Are you sure you're ready for that?"

"Well, it would be rude of me to refuse hearing your side, especially after you went through the effort of travelling to Wartwood from so far away. Go on, if you would."

So, with Hop Pop's permission, Carl began to tell the elder orange frog everything he went through during the last three days: from the moment he woke up and got free from the healing tank where he had been sleeping in a comatose state for the past 1000 years, to the description of his journey to Wartwood, where he told Hop Pop how the inhabitants of Frogsville and Log's End refused to let him stay at their inns, forcing him to sleep in the wild of Frog Valley. However, he chose to omit one detail from his narrative: Carl thought it might be best not to tell Hop Pop that he, even though it was accidental, generated and emitted dark purple negative energy waves that repelled anyone who came close, making them want for Carl to get away from them as fast and as soon as possible. For, if our newt friend slipped up and told Hop Pop about his strange and uncontrollable power, the old frog would eventually become another one in the list of people who rejected and refused to interact with him in any way possible, out of fear that he would spread unsolicited negativity and worsen Hop Pop's mood even more.

Even though Hop Pop listened carefully to everything Carl told him about his adventure so far, at the end of the day he thought that the whole story was just an absurd and nonsensical fairy tale that couldn't have possibly been real. After Carl finished telling his tale, Hop Pop spoke to him about what bothered him the most, always in a skeptical tone "Okay, let me be straight with you. I find it very difficult to believe in most of the things you told me about what happened to you and what you've done. I mean, a tank that has been keeping you alive by using a special healing liquid when you've been mortally wounded? Are you really more than 1000 years old? Were you being kept hidden in a secret laboratory all this time? But, most importantly, do you really believe that some malarkey "vision", as you call it, will show you the way to the answers you need to find out about your forgotten identity? I mean, come one, you're putting all your faith in someone you've never seen or met before in your life! And, let's be honest here, you're talking about a creature that I doubt even exists: there's no one in Amphibia that matches the description you've given me about this beast of yours." When Hop Pop tried to deny Anne's existence and arrival in Amphibia, he broke a few tiny drops of sweat from his forehead and his voice broke as soon as he mentioned the topic, as if Carl had touched a notoriously sensitive subject to him.

"I was already expecting that you wouldn't believe me so easily, old man. But, if you just hear me out again on the matter, you'll see that it was Destiny that made me see the real significance this creature has to my quest, and it was also this force that lead me to your home, don't you see?"

Hop Pop began to mock Carl's attempt to defend his point of view " Hahahaha! Are you serious? That's the best excuse you could come up with to justify your journey to my home? Unlike what you want me to believe, that's the most ridiculous part about this whole thing! In my opinion, your whole story seems to have come out of a very far-fetched fantasy novel. There's no such thing as Fate, young man! And the creature you're looking for isn't here, in my house. So, I'm sorry to say it like this, but it seems you came here in vain."

"Really? I'm not so certain about that last part. I saw a shadow of someone that looked just like the creature I'm looking for entering your house a few minutes ago, before I knocked at your door."

Suddenly, without giving it a second thought, Hop Pop entered into a frenzied state of panic the moment Carl mentioned seeing Anne enter the Plantars' residence in the middle of the night. He was sweating heavily from his forehead, and had a clear disposition of fear marked on his facial features: taking into account all of this, one could almost deduce that the elder orange frog was hiding a big and very personal secret that he didn't want anyone to find out about. Therefore, in order to protect his secret, Hop Pop tried to deny our newt protagonist's claim "W-What? What are you talking about? I didn't hear anyone open the door to my house without my permission! It's almost as if you think I had a break-in! Must be your darn imagination at work."

"Uh, no. I saw very clearly what happened: I've been following the path that the creature has been taking, from the moment I saw it at this town's central plaza, until it came here into your farm and entered unnoticed through your front door. Aren't you at least worried that perhaps you may have a burglar hidden inside your home, ready to rob you blind?"

"A-Are you joking with me? Don't you think that if a burglar had entered my house I wouldn't be dealing with the situation by defending myself and my family against the criminal, and then call the police to arrest the fiend? If that really happened, we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

"Yes, I agree with you, but..."

However, before Carl could finish his sentence, Hop Pop interrupted him to deflect the current topic of discussion, hoping that, by avoiding the conversation, the newt would forget about his sighting entirely "Hey, look up there. Doesn't the sky look lovely tonight? There's not a cloud in sight covering it, and we can see all the stars that are smiling upon us here in Amphibia. It's nights like these that give me the perfect excuse to use my telescope in the attic: that's one of my favorite hobbies, you know, gazing closely at the stars and hunt for some of the most beautiful and fascinating constellations in the universe. Isn't that interesting? Hehehehe ..."

Carl was beginning to become frustrated with Hop Pop's attitude, always dodging the main issue at hand. So, on account of that, he decided to confront the old frog about it "Okay, now you're starting to get on my nerves, sir. Your talk up until now hasn't been making any sense whatsoever: first, you tried to deny the existence of the creature, and the fact that I saw it enter into your house; and now you're trying to avoid talking with me about it, like it was nothing?! So, I have to ask: what's really going on in here? And why aren't you telling me the truth?"

"Uh... Uh..." Carl's confrontational posture finally backed Hop Pop into a corner he couldn't get out of: he was now sweating more than he did before in their conversation, so much so that the elderly frog began questioning if he would dehydrate at the rate he was losing bodily water through his sweat; not only that, but Hop Pop also saw himself struggling to respond back to Carl's questioning, or even uttering one single word out of his mouth, since he was stuttering uncontrolably due to the panic attack that ensued out of fear of having his secret exposed.

It seems though that Carl wasn't the only person in the vicinity witnessing Hop Pop's breakdown: for the mysterious sinister voice in Carl's mind returned to speak his mind about the situation, but only inside his head "My, my, my ... For once in your puny life you managed to impress me, Carl! You really hit a sensitive spot on this mischievous old frog's soul, my friend. He may not have spilled the beans yet, but you know deep down that he's lying to you and that, in fact, he knows the creature at a personal level. This sap of a frog is also aware that we smelled his bullshit for what it really is, and he's on the verge of confessing the truth. Now, all that's left for him to confess is for you to apply the finishing touch to this conversation..."

Carl didn't like the sound of his inner intruder's comment on this conversation, because he could tell there was malice involved in the sinister voice's suggestion. So, consequently, Carl decided to question the voice's motives. But he only spoke to the mysterious voice in an inner dialogue, for he also didn't reveal to Hop Pop that he had an evil voice inside his mind talking to him without his consent: if Carl had told this to the old frog, the latter would only think he was a full-blown lunatic that talked to imaginary people who didn't exist, ending the discussion right there. "What kind of finishing touch are you talking about?"

"Oh, it's nothing that special, really. I'm just asking that you give him a beating that he won't forget so soon... That will really make him spill the info we want to know, HAHAHAHAHA!"

"WHAT?! I knew you were up to no good! There's no way I am going to beat the truth out of this elderly frog! You can't force people to reveal their secrets by using physical aggression against them!"

"Oh, really... You would be surprised if you knew how many times this strategy works when trying to get people to reveal valuable information that they've hidden away from you. Come on, give it a try. Beat this old frog's ass into submission!"

"No, I'm not going to fight him!"

"Oh, I see ... Perhaps you're right: maybe giving him a beating isn't enough to make him yield, since he could be one of those tougher frogs from the old days, when even kicking someone's ass into near death wouldn't force them to reveal their deepest and most heavily guarded secrets. We need to strike this senile frog's weakest point. Why, doesn't he have a family of two grandkids, who are still children by the way, that mean the world to him?..."

"What are you planning to do with this gentlefrog's family?"

"Well... I was thinking that, since an old fashioned beating may not be enough for us to get what we want, perhaps it would serve him right if you entered into his house, snatched his grandkids from their beds, and threatened to harm them, in front of him, if he doesn't tell you the truth, HAHAHAHAHA!"

After hearing everything that the sinister voice proposed, Carl replied back, horrified by the prospect of taking away children from their families and use them as hostages to force Hop Pop to tell the truth "ARE YOU INSANE?! You're a horrible person ... Don't you dare to think that I agree with anything you've just said. I'm not going to kidnap children in their sleep, take them away from their grandfather and threaten to harm them, in front of him, to get him to confess the truth about the creature! It's wrong to do so, and just ... evil!"

"Oh... I don't think so... You don't have much of a choice here: as you can see, using only your words isn't doing anything at all to make him confess the truth and stop lying. So, you're going to do as I said, and that's the end of the story."

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will."

"No, I will not!"

"Oh, yes, you will do it eventually..."

"No, I will never do what you say!"

"Oh, trust me, you will ..."

"No, I won't do anything to harm these people! Stop bothering me about it!"

"Cut the crap talk, Carl! Just DO IT!"

At this moment, Carl completely lost his self-control, giving in to the pressure applied by the mysterious voice and snapping out loud to his intruder "NO, YOU LISTEN TO ME, YOU MONSTER! FIRST OF ALL, I REFUSE TO PHYSICALLY ATTACK A FRAIL ELDERLY FROG JUST BECAUSE HE'S HIDING FROM ME THE FACT THAT HE KNOWS THE CREATURE PERSONALLY AND HE KNOWS I SAW IT ENTER HIS HOUSE! THEN, I ALSO REFUSE TO KIDNAP HIS GRANDCHILDREN FROM HIM AND MAKE THEM MY HOSTAGES UNTIL HE AGREES TO CONFESS THE TRUTH TO ME! SO, STOP BULLYING ME TO DO THAT AND GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

To his misfortune, Carl only realized he was talking out loud once it was too late and he had screamed his lungs out against following through with the voice's malicious plan: as soon as he was finished, Carl covered up his mouth with his hands out of shame and appalment from losing control like he did, mixed with fear that his slip-up would lead to a major misunderstanding with the elder frog. Hop Pop heard everything the newt just said, reacting with absolute terror at the prospect of being beaten up and having his grandchildren taken away right under his nose.

"D-D-Did I hear you right just now...? A-A-Are you really planning to harm me and kidnap my grandchildren from me...?"

"N-No, this is not what you're thinking sir! I was being coerced into doing all you just heard by someone else who's not here with us, and ..."

Before Carl could finish explaining himself, however, Hop Pop interrupted him: the elderly frog's previous terror and inertia was quickly replaced with an aggressively defensive and hostile attitude towards his newt visitor. He erupted in rage not long after Carl tried to defend himself "Well, guess what pal, you're not going to get away with it! If you think I can't defend myself and my family because I'm just a weak and run down old frog, you've got another thing coming! I won't let you take Sprig and Polly from me, you accursed hooligan! They are my world, and I won't let anyone hurt them, not matter the cost! SO, YOU BETTER PREPARE YOURSELF, BECAUSE I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR BUTT IF YOU DARE TO APPROACH ME, OR MY HOUSE AND MY FAMILY!"

Afterwards, Hop Pop showed Carl he was ready to put his words into action by assuming a fighting stance, where he put his fists up in the air and waved them in front of his "opponent", showing he was ready to put up a fight.

Luckily, for our newt protagonist, Anne Boonchuy appeared right behind Hop Pop before he could seize the opportunity to start a fight with Carl over the misunderstanding of which the latter was trying to warn him about. Surprisingly, Anne was still wearing her Saint James Middle School uniform (in other words, her daylight clothes), which is pretty unusual, taking into consideration how late it is. Anne had been trying to fall asleep down in the basement of the Plantar house before this whole ordeal had started, and she was briefly successful for a while: that is, until the combination of Carl's and Hop Pop's screams woke her up. So, she went upstairs to check what was happening.

"Yo, HP, what's going on up here? Why are you screaming like that in the middle of the night? Can't you see that some of us are trying to sleep?!"

"A-Anne, what are you doing awake at this hour? Shouldn't you be in bed? J-Just go away, please! You don't want to be around here right now, trust me!"

"Wha? But why don't you want me here? What's happening?"

As Anne got closer to the front door to see what all the fuss was about, Hop Pop decided to block her view to the outside, in order to protect everyone from what he perceived to be a threat made by Carl to harm the old frog's family "N-No, Anne, stay back and don't come any closer! It's for your own safety!"

"What are you talking about, Hop Pop? What's outside that could possibly be dangerous for me? Just let me take a look and we'll see if you're right."

Afterwards, Anne proceeded to push Hop Pop aside, doing so fairly easily, even though the elder frog offered some resistance to her efforts. When she finally got a chance to see Carl in front of her, without Hop Pop standing in the way, instead of feeling dread, she became instantaneously impressed with his imposing figure: not only because he was visibly taller than her, and by extension outclassing in height the vast majority of the amphibians she's seen so far, but also because she was hypnotized by Carl's deep purple eyes, since they were a very rare (if not non-existent) and beautiful eye colour in human beings as well.

Anne didn't hesitate to manifest the impact that Carl's sighting had made on her "Whoa! Man, are you really huge! What have you been eating to get so big?"

"Stop getting excited about this, Anne! This guy is nothing but trouble! He's trying to hurt us: he threatened to give me a good old fashioned beating, and he went even further by suggesting that, if his first strategy didn't work, he would kidnap Sprig and Polly right in front of us and use them as hostages until I gave him what he wanted!"

Carl continued, in a state of panic, with his attempt to defend himself, but this time he directed his speech towards Anne instead of Hop Pop "No, it's not like that! This is all a big misunderstanding on this gentlefrog's part! You see, I didn't want to do any of the malicious things he accused me of planning to do: I was being manipulated into trying to hurt his family by someone else, but I refused to follow through with those plans and I was trying my best to resist acting upon my manipulator's will!"

As was expected, Hop Pop was still upholding his defensive and hostile demeanor towards Carl, and wasn't believing a word that was coming out of the latter's mouth "Don't believe anything this fella is telling you, Anne! In case you haven't figured out yet, you're the one this fiend's been looking for. I don't know why he wanted to see you, or what he wants with you, but I can tell it's nothing good at all! You need to get away from here, before he hurts you too!"

However, much to Hop Pop's dismay, Anne didn't back away from Carl's presence: in fact, when the elder frog mentioned that the newt had been looking for her, Anne looked at Carl's figure more closely and with more attention than before; she slowly started to recognize the newt as the same one she saw on her "dreams", during her time living in the cave on the outskirts of Wartwood "Wait... I've seen you before. I knew there was some reason why you looked so familiar! Hop Pop, I need to speak with this guy, alone."

Hop Pop's eyes widened in terror when Anne spoke those last words "Are you completely crazy, Anne?! Didn't you hear a single word of what I said?! This guy is bad news, it's written all over his face! Or do you want him to hurt you, like he said he would do to me, Sprig and Polly?!"

"Could you stop talking for a second and listen to me, HP? Okay, look, I know you have your reasons to suspect he may be a bad guy, based on what he was yelling out loud in front of you. But let me ask you one thing: has this guy laid a finger on you to hurt you, or did he even try to break into this house and kidnap Sprig and Polly? Did he really do any of the things he was "threatening" to do?"

"W-Well, I guess not... But he still may have some hidden intention to hurt you, Anne, don't you see?!"

"Hop Pop, I think that this is all just a big misunderstanding. Just let me talk to him for a few minutes to see if this mess can be cleared up. And, in case he plans to hurt me, don't worry about me, because I'm more than capable of defending myself."

Hop Pop was beginning to calm himself down, and he felt his reason come back to him, as was demonstrated when he spoke to Anne calmly this time "Okay... If you say so, I'll let you speak with this man, then. But be careful, Anne, I don't want anything bad happening to you."

Anne nodded her head in agreement with Hop Pop's words of caution, and the elder frog left her and the newt alone, outside of their house. However, both decided not to stay near the front door to the Plantar house, since they wanted their conversation to be kept secret and not heard by anyone else, especially by Hop Pop. So, Anne and Carl walked a short distance until they were already past the farm's plantation fields and away from snooping eyes and ears. A silence marked the setting between the two for a while, for neither Anne nor Carl knew who to let speak first between the two of them, nor did they know what to say to start the conversation.

Luckily, Anne managed to come up with a conversation starter, something which came naturally to her due to her outgoing nature and good people skills, and which also seemed to balance out Carl's quiet, timid and reserved nature "Well... Now that no one can hear or see us talk, let me start by saying... Sorry for HP having jumped his gun to you like he did. Don't take it personally, he's just a little bit paranoid when meeting new people and interacting with strangers, and he can overreact if he sees someone saying or doing something that he perceives might be a threat to him and to anyone he cares about. Heck, if you look behind your back, you can see that Hop Pop is secretly watching us from the inside of the house, behind one of the windows of the bottom floor."

Carl looked back into the direction of the house, curious to see if that was true, and he immediately confirmed Anne's own suspicion: for, indeed, Hop Pop was staring at them from behind the large window of the living room, first with his eyes widened and hypervigilant to the newt's movements, and then the elder frog subsequently squinted his eyes back at Carl, as a way to show he was still suspicious and untrusting of his intentions towards Anne. But, as soon as he made his point clear, he stopped glaring at him and shut the curtains of the living room, hiding away from their sight.

Fortunately, Carl was over their disagreement from before and didn't mind his attitude anymore "That's alright. I can't say he's entirely to blame for how he reacted, though: the truth is, I lost control much before he snapped at me, and I found myself screaming outwardly what my manipulator was trying to force me to do. I won't let that happen again."

"Hey, speaking of which, who exactly is this manipulator guy? Where is he, and how did you hear him speak to you?"

"I-I'm sorry... I think it's for the best if I don't tell you anything about who the manipulator is, for now at least. I'm not hiding the answer from you because I have something against you, but I'm afraid it's a far too complicated situation, both for me to explain and for you to understand. No hard feelings about this?"

"Well... I don't like it when people hide away things from me because they think I won't understand them, either because I'm too young or too naive or too dumb to know what they're talking about. But... if you don't want to talk about it, then we'll leave that be."

"Thank you for understanding my situation. I appreciate that. But... going off this topic, I have to ask one thing first: what kind of beast are you supposed to be? I've never seen any creature of your kind before in my life. Are you even from Amphibia?"

Anne felt slightly offended for Carl treating her like an untamed savage animal, and her irritated tone of voice put an emphasis on that feeling "Hey, let me be clear on one thing, buddy! I'm not a simple "beast" or a "creature" that is a freak of nature: I'm a human, and I'm a girl too! So, if you want to get along with me, you better stop treating me like a brainless animal and call me by my name, Anne."

"Oh... Sorry for offending you like that. And I guess I better introduce myself as well: my name is Carl. Nice to meet you."

"Okay, that's better now. Nice to meet you too."

A short silence followed this initial interaction, after which Carl had his turn at speaking first about something he was curious about "So, Anne, now that I know what you are, a human, I'm curious to know more about that. What exactly is a human, and why haven't I seen others of your species in Amphibia before?"

"Oh, that? If you really want to know more about human beings, then I could spend all night explaining to you about us and you still wouldn't understand half of how we are built and work. Humans are too complicated for you to get us overnight, and it's better if we don't waste any time on that topic. What you need to know though is that I, and other humans as well, am not from Amphibia."

"The truth is that I am from another world called Earth: I arrived in this world about a month ago, when I opened a magical music box that mysteriously teleported me right here to Amphibia; and I'm not the only human in here, because my two best friends, Sasha and Marcy, were also with me when I opened the music box, and I'm positively sure they're here in Amphibia, somewhere... But I don't know where they are, and I'm worried sick about them and if they're okay..."

Carl felt sympathy towards Anne's plight over not knowing the whereabouts of her best friends "I'm sorry to hear that... It's a shame you three got separeted when you arrived in Amphibia... But don't worry too much about them, I'm sure you'll find each other eventually if you try to look for one another."

"Yeah... That's what I'm hoping for too. And that's exactly what I want to do before going back to my home planet: I'm not leaving this place without finding Marcy and Sasha first!"

Another silence followed the end of this conversation, but it didn't last for long, because Anne spoke to the newt once again "But anyways, let's stop talking about me and how I got to Amphibia for a minute. Now, it's your turn, Carl: what's your story, and how did you get here to Wartwood and find me at the Plantars' house?

"Well, since you really want to hear about my side, then it will be my pleasure to tell you everything that has happened to me over the last few days. But, I must warn you that my tale is very long, so I need you to be patient, pay attention and hear everything until the end. Can you handle that?"

"Yeah, I'll try my best to hear you out. But I also need to tell you that I'm known to have a short attention span, so you need to keep your story interesting, or I will fall asleep during the middle and miss the juicy stuff, got that?"

"Understood. Don't worry too much about it, though, because I will only tell you the most important details, leaving out the parts that don't matter as much."

"Gotcha. When you're ready, you can start talking."

And thusly, our newt protagonist began telling Anne the major details of the main events that he went through during the past days, from the moment he awakened from his comatose slumber at the lab below Swamp Shiro to eventually reaching Wartwood by foot and finding and following Anne's shadowy silhouette into the Plantar farm. However, Carl saw that the best course of action would be to hide from Anne the fact he had an evil and sinister voice talking to him inside his own mind, and also that he could generate and emit dark purple waves full of negative energy: he omitted these details from his story for the same reason he did so with Hop Pop, in order not to freak her out and lead her to get away from him out of fear that he would be a negative and dangerous influence. Of course, Anne dozed off a few times during Carl's storytelling and she saw herself on the verge of falling asleep during those moments. But, fortunately, Carl was able to get her out of that state of inattentiveness, and she made a sincere effort to listen to Carl's tale until the end.

When he was finished, Anne was at a complete loss for words over the scenarios of Carl's most recent adventures: everything that he had just told her seemed so surreal, and almost akin to a made-up story instead of matching the reality of the situations that the narrator experienced in real life. After a few moments of absorption, Anne felt her speech return to her tongue "Whoa... I-I almost can't believe what I've just heard ... Your story seems so out of anything I've experienced so far in my life, even by this world's standards, and Amphibia has been pretty weird so far!"

"Yeah, I had a feeling you would have that reaction. I mean, my story is kind of hard to believe the first time you hear it. But I assure you that what I've told you is real, and I haven't made anything up."

"Are you kidding me?! I don't care that your story seems to have been made up and makes you seem like a crazy person. To be honest, I think what you've been through is actually cool in its own way! It reminds me of the plots of some of my friend Marcy's favorite sci-fi and fantasy movies."

"Thanks for hearing me out and believing me. But... I still have one question for you, and don't take this as me trying to snoop around and meddling in your life: what were you doing out in the street so late into the night? Shouldn't you have been inside the elderly gentlefrog's house resting and sleeping?"

"Well... Since the jig is all up, and you're not HP, I guess it's okay if I tell you the truth. You see, after I had dinner with the Plantars, I waited for all of them to go to bed and fall asleep, so I could then sneak out of their house without any of them knowing. And I did this because Hop Pop was driving me crazy with his paranoia and overvigilant attitude towards me and the frogs who live in Wartwood! Ever since I arrived in Wartwood two days ago, and the Plantars took me into their home, Hop Pop has been keeping me locked inside his house almost all day and rarely lets me go out of the house, because he's afraid that I may scare and drive away everyone in Wartwood every time I show up in town, or that I may cause other kinds of trouble, since they still see me as a monster who's trying to eat them alive or something like that!"

"So, I sneaked outside of their house in the middle of the night, and I decided to go to a lake near this town to throw some frog skipping stones at the water, to see how many skips they could do before sinking into the bottom of the lake. Man, it felt like I was being set free from a really uncomfortable and unbearable prison, and rediscovering what freedom feels like. And, when I talk about frog skipping stones, I'm talking about literal living frogs shaped like stones, who seem to skip perfectly when they're thrown into water! It sounds weird and crazy, I know, but it's also funny at the same time, hahahaha!"

Carl laughed along with Anne when he heard about the frog skipping stones, thinking that it was a genuinely funny fact. But, as soon as the comedic moment was over, Carl had his turn to speak once more "Listen, I know very well that everything I told you about my misadventures may sound completely ridiculous and far-fetched, especially with the parts where I woke up in a laboratory and had visions that showed me your survival journey in the wilderness of Wartwood Swamp. But, for some reason I can't explain, I don't believe our meeting happened by mere chance: I sincerely believe that our encounter was meant to be since the very beginning. Don't you agree?"

"You know what? You can call me crazy, but yeah, I get what you mean. You had visions about me, I had visions about you and you even went through all the trouble of travelling from far way to Wartwood just so you could meet me in person. So yeah, I don't think that's just a simple coincidence: fate brought us together so we could help eachother achieve our own goals. From what I can tell, what I want is very different from what you want, but both our journeys are very similar to one another, and I think we can work well with eachother along the way."

"So, Carl, I want to propose a deal between us: I will help you explore Amphibia more carefully and also help you find clues that may point out to who you are and make you remember what kind of past you had, and you, in return, will help me to survive here in Amphibia and help me look for a way that takes me and my friends back to my home. So, do we have a deal?"

"Yes, it's a deal." With that said, Anne and Carl extended their hands to eachother and proceeded to shake them in order to officialize the deal and their partnership. Both smiled to one another and Anne spoke with a tone of optimism to our newt protagonist "Great! I guess this makes us partners, am I right? I'm sure we'll be able to pull this off without much trouble."

"Yeah, I hope so too."

"But... There's one thing I forgot to mention before in our conversation: the borders of Frog Valley are completely frozen right now, and they're closed off to all kinds of travel, whether they be to go outside or go inside this region; and it will take about two months for the ice to thaw and for travelling to become possible again outside of the valley... So, I guess that, until that time comes, we'll be stuck inside Frog Valley and we'll have to do our work in here before we go out to explore the rest of Amphibia. Is that okay to you?"

"Well, I can't say I like that idea... But it seems we have no choice for now, so I'll stick with that plan for the time being."

Anne nodded her head in agreement with Carl's words, and another silence followed the end of their dialogue. Carl then looked at the night sky and reflected upon the time that passed between the beginning and the ending of his conversation with Anne: he soon realized that it was getting late, and it was already time for him to look for a place to sleep and for Anne to return to the Plantar house and rest for the night.

"Listen, Anne, it was a pleasure meeting and talking to you, but it's getting pretty late and I'm very sleepy ... So, I'll just get going to find a place nearby good enough for me to sleep in. You also need to get back to that gentlefrog's house, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. But... Wouldn't you rather stay with us? I mean, are you really going to sleep on the street? I won't let that happen: I'm sure that if Hop Pop sees that I'm okay and you didn't hurt me he will start to trust you a bit more and let you sleep at his house. What do you think?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm in a position to ask that just yet. He still doesn't trust me at all, and I feel that I'm still unwelcome to stay at his house, or even near him at this point. Don't worry about me. When I was journeying from Swamp Shiro to here I slept in the wild of Frog Valley: I managed to always find a cave or a forest clearing to sleep in, so I'll do the same thing for Wartwood."

"I understand. You do what you think it's best for you... Well, since you're mentioning it, I guess it's best that I return to the Plantars' house now. Good luck on your search for a place to spend the night, Carl. I hope I'll see you tomorrow morning. I can't wait for you to meet Sprig and Polly, and the rest of the frogs of Wartwood too! Let's see if at least they warm up to you. Okay, enough talking, I'll get going. See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow!"

At last, Anne and Carl parted ways for the night, with both of them getting further and further apart until they lost sight of each other in their respective event horizon. Carl made his way out of the Plantar farm territory to venture into the woods near the town of Wartwood. Unlike the past few days, Carl was now feeling a slight sense of relief and happiness for finally finding someone in Amphibia who he could talk to, besides the evil sinister voice in his mind, who didn't judge him prematurely and who even went further than that and agreed to help him find out his true identity. It seems that he had found in Anne the perfect companion for the future adventures that were awaiting them in the months to come. Despite this initial excitement, however, it was still too soon to say exactly how Carl's journey would fare, because the newt's adventures are just in the beginning...

End of Episode 1: The Beginning