It's a beautiful morning when Luz wakes up in the bed in the palace. Maddie, who is at the other end of the bed, looks like to be still asleep. Originally, Luz suggested taking one of the mattresses that are stacked on top of each other and sleeping on the floor, but Maddie says that given the sheer size of the bed, there shouldn't be a problem if they both sleep in it. To reinforce her point, she flopped onto the bed and stretched out all her limbs, covering less than a fifth of the width of the bed.
Although Luz has slept with other people in the same room in her past, such as after her moonlight conjuring with Willow and Gus, or King always at the foot of her mattress, or Anne sleeping with Luz in the Plantars' basement, it certainly took a little getting used to sharing a bed with someone, even if they each had their own blanket.
The nice, calm atmosphere in the room is quickly broken when the door to the room slams open and a hyper-charged Marcy Wu stomps into the room, a tired Lady Olivia standing beside her and Maddie jumps up immediately.
"Good, you guys are awake", Marcy remarks, to which Maddie just yawns into a pillow before sitting up.
"After Master Marcy jerked me on my nap to try and persuade me to allow you access to the Royal Library as well as restricted access to the palace grounds, I have come to offer you a proposition..." Lady Olivia recounts with a raspy voice while Marcy stands next to her, grinning widely and arms trembling.
"If you agree to help Master Marcy with our... ant problem, I am willing to drop all charges against you and grant you limited privileges."
Instead of Luz and Maddie getting excited, as Marcy had hoped, the two sit on the bed with no discernible emotion. Maddie can't stop yawning and her hair is completely disheveled and Luz just takes turns looking at Marcy and Lady Olivia, along with a touch of confusion.
"Ant problem?" Luz asks.
"Barbari-Ants. A colony has settled in front of the city and I have to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Otherwise, there is a long-term risk that we will no longer be able to feed the people if goods cannot be delivered from outside", Marcy explains the situation.
"And how are we supposed to help with that?" Luz asks.
"I have no idea", Marcy says, "So far there is no strategy. I'm going to meet up with a couple of consultants to work something out. So? What do you think?"
Luz looks at Maddie, who doesn't seem to have realized what is happening.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh... Okay, we'll help", Luz says.
"YAAAY! This is gonna be sooo much fun", Marcy says, walking back out of the room. She sticks her head back into the room and says, "Come to my office in an hour" and sprints away.
Lady Olivia, who is still at the door, says "Master Marcy's office is near the entrance to the palace. I will arrange for a guard to escort you there." and leaves the room as well.
Some time has passed and meanwhile both Maddie and Luz have gotten up and are also halfway awake when suddenly someone knocks on the door. Luz goes over and opens it.
There is a guard in front of the door. The guard says "Good morning. I have been assigned to escort you to Master Marcy. Can we leave?"
Luz looks over at Maddie, who is just about putting on her cloak and stuffing some glyphs into her pocket before giving Luz a thumbs-up. Luz grabs her backpack that's by the door and says "We're ready"
Immediately after the group sets off, Luz says, with relief in her voice, "Oh boi, I'm so glad to finally be out of this room... Don't get me wrong, luxury can be nice, but I prefer rooms with character..."
Nobody reacts to this and Luz looks at Maddie, who takes a moment to realize that Luz is looking at her.
Concerned, Luz asks "Maddie, are you alright? You seem unusually exhausted and you can hardly keep your eyes open..."
"I'm... I'm just not fully awake yet. If I can eat anything soon, I'll feel better. I promise", Maddie assures Luz, which isn't very effective at allaying Luz's worries.
"I hope you're right", Luz says as the group gradually approaches the palace entrance. But instead of going into one of the rooms on the sides, they continue to go straight towards the large front gate.
Luz asks "Shouldn't we meet Marcy in her office?"
"Master Marcy has already left the palace and set up a temporary command post outside the city walls", the guard explains.
Luz is not thrilled.
After what felt like an eternity, the small group arrived at the edge of town. The gate opened briefly especially for them and Luz and Maddie went through. They did expect the gate to be closed behind them, but not that the guard would not accompany them any further.
"Seriously?" Luz asks, "You're leaving us alone out here?"
A small voice can be heard from the other side of the gate: "I was only supposed to escort you to the city walls. Anything after that is not my problem."
"¿Me estás tomando el pelo? Cobarde!", Luz shouted, "Come on. We'll find Marcy even without them..."
"What did the guard say earlier? Marcy has set up a base of operations out here somewhere..." Maddie repeated.
"Right. Hop up, I don't want to walk", Luz suggests after preparing her staff.
The search doesn't take long. After maybe half a minute, the two girls see a big tent and Luz lands a few meters behind it. The tent stands on a tiny mound that juts out of the water that surrounds the city. It is mostly orange, though decorated with gold designs on all sides, a large gold sigil over the entrance, and a purple flag at the top flapping in the wind. There are already a few voices that seem to be energetically arguing about something. One of the voices definitely belongs to Marcy.
"Knock knock", Luz says while entering the tent with Maddie.
"Luz! Maddie! It's great that you made it. Eh... Where's Eric?" Marcy asks, quite happy to see the two girls.
From the outside, the tent seemed quite small and unimpressive. So, it was particularly surprising to see how big it looks from the inside and how cluttered it is. There are several large carpets on the floor, maps and banners are hanging all over the walls, there is a round, wooden table in the middle with some very thick books under it, and around the table there are three other Newts who look quite alike standing next to Marcy, each wearing a gray cloak.
"Who?" Luz asks.
"The guard I assigned to bring you here...", Marcy explains.
"Oh... He kicked us out at the gate and said he did his job", Maddie explains.
"Master Marcy, who are these... creatures?" one of the Newts asked in disgust.
"Oh, right. Triple B, this is Luz and Maddie. Luz and Maddie, this is Bartley, Branson and Blair. They're going to help us with the Barbari-ants later", Marcy explains with anticipation, "Come sit down. We're just having breakfast and trying to figure out if it would be worth growing seaweed here outside the city."
"And like I said before, Blair, there's no point in planting seaweed to compact the soil because seaweed doesn't have roots that go deep enough..." Bartley said.
"Maybe. But then we would be able to provide food for the people of the city in situations like this", Blair explains.
"Shut up, Blair. No one wants to eat seaweed. I'd rather be dependent on imports", Bartley counters.
This discussion, which everyone present knows is going nowhere, continues for more than thirty minutes and while Bartley, Branson and Blair argue wildly, Maddie, Marcy and Luz enjoy their breakfast.
"Marcy?"
"Hm?"
"Just out of curiosity: You told us earlier that you would expect us in your office. Why are we here instead?"
"Well... In order to be able to develop a strategy to drive out the Barbari-Ants, I need to know exactly where they are and how they are forming. I can't do that from my office in the palace."
"What actually are Barbari Ants?" Luz asks.
"Basically, they're like regular ants from Earth. Only bigger. Much bigger. And much more aggressive", Marcy explains.
"How much bigger?" asks Luz, slightly intimidated when she feels the ground shake beneath her feet.
Suddenly there's a roar and Luz and Marcy run to the tent entrance. A few meters in front of them, a few mounds form in the ground, from which rather large creatures crawl out and run straight towards the tent.
While Luz searches for her glyphs in a bit of a panic, Marcy calmly picks up her crossbow and fires a few arrows in quick succession in the direction of the critters. Just before the first arrow hits one of the critters, the arrowhead splits in two and a net comes out, catching the critter, causing it to fall to the ground, unable to move. The other arrows probably contained a flammable liquid, because when they hit the rest, several burning spots formed on the water surface, after which the critters retreat to the ground.
"That... Oh my God... Marcy...", Luz stutters, "That was crazy"
"Those are my trick arrows. I'm kind of like Hawkeye. You know, from the Marvel comics..."
"That's sooo cooool", says Luz in awe, whereupon Marcy blushes and looks at the floor.
"Oh, that's nothing. But- We now have a living Barbari-Ant to study. Okay, admittedly, I haven't been doing much else than that lately, now we have to find a way to scare them away."
"Luz, will you help me pull it in front of the tent?" Marcy asks.
"What about your advisors in there?" Luz asks, pointing to the tent behind her.
From the tent, the girls hear yelling, "We're analysts. We don't do... field work."
Both of them can't help but giggle and Luz agrees to help. Arriving at the Barbari-Ant, Luz is amazed at the motionless animal. "You really didn't understate when you said they were big"
Their general physique is not dissimilar to that of Earth ants. Three body sections: the head, from which pincers hang, the thoracic part, from which six legs extend, and the massive lower part, in which most of the organs and some glands are located. However, this type of ant has brightly colored, coral-like antennae on its head and is a meter tall and almost two meters long...
Halfway back to the tent with the immobilized ant in tow, Marcy asks "Out of curiosity, what's the matter with your frog friend? What was her name again? Maddie or something?"
Luz sighs. "Since I woke up, Maddie seems kind of... drained... like she's about to pass out. She assured me that she only needed to eat something, but so far I don't see any change."
"You really care about her, don't you?" Marcy asks.
"Well... I don't like it when my friends aren't feeling well and I don't know how to help. Plus, she's a tremendous help in finding a way home."
After a short pause Marcy says "You know Luz, you remind me a bit of Anne... On Earth she was always the one who looked out for me. She always warned me when I accidentally ran into or towards somewhere I shouldn't be. If I got too deep into something, she made sure I wasn't hurt. And whenever I discovered a new interest for me, she was always attentive and always tried to participate. Even if she had trouble understanding it..."
Luz, you spent some time with Anne here in Amphibia. Do you think she...um...will be glad to see me when she gets here?" Luz is a bit confused by Marcy's sudden insecurity.
"Um... yes, definitely. Anne had suggested I sleep in the same room with her and when she mentioned a hammock, I couldn't say no. When we couldn't sleep there was a lot to talk about, among other things she had told me several times how much she missed you. In fact, she always had a photo of the three of you next to her mattress."
Marcy sniffles "Thank you Luz"
A few hours pass, filled with a number of experiments on the trapped ant, most of them consisting of reactions to various pheromones, sounds, light...
In hindsight, the light tests had proved pointless after Marcy remembered that the Queen is blind. What had also proved to be pointless was the presence of Marcy's advisers Bartley, Branson and Blair. Not only have they consistently refused to help, they just bickered about all sorts of unimportant things the whole time. While it was entertaining to listen to, it wasn't helpful in the slightest.
Eventually just Marcy, Luz and Maddie had been working on a potential solution: By measuring the Barbari-Ant's brainwaves, the girls realized how it was possible to use pheromones to activate the ants' instinct to flee, and after Maddie reminded Marcy that boomshrooms are actually a thing in Amphibia, the idea of stinkshrooms was born quite quickly and in order not to waste any more time or give the ants another chance to attack, it was decided to deploy the stinkshrooms that same day.
Since the three Newts, as expected, refused to come along, it was only Maddie, Marcy and Luz who made their way towards the largest hole leading into the ground and, in Marcy's opinion, straight to the ant queen. When Marcy falls into a large cavity full of Barbari-Ants, the girls quickly realize that they are on the right track.
"That's a bad idea...", Maddie mutters.
"Oh yes, definitely. But that wouldn't be the first one", comments Luz and jumps into the hole in the ground after Marcy. Maddie follows her. When Luz and Maddie arrive at the bottom of the hole, the first few ants are already on their way to attack the girls.
Luckily, before heading towards the cave, Luz and Maddie were both outfitted with appropriate weaponry and equipment. With Luz having absolutely no hands-on experience with swordsmanship, and at the same time not ready to reveal her glyph magic in front of Marcy, Maddie was willing to hand over her throwing curses to the Luz while she will wield the sword herself should the need arise.
And right now, there's such a need: the group is surrounded by ants, Marcy is about to get up, Maddie draws her sword, which is longer than she is tall, and Luz is holding some throwable curses.
Luz throws the first curse, which explodes in front of the ants like a firecracker. After a few more of these, they retreat...
„That was surprisingly easy," Luz comments.
"Aww frog, I wish I could have chopped off some heads with this thing", Maddie complains as adrenaline rushes through her body.
"Uh, that was easy", Marcy says, who is now on her feet and walking toward some sort of plant, seeming to mix some concoction together.
She throws the mixture at a nearby wall, which explodes on impact, shaking the entire cave. Marcy shouts for Luz and Maddie to follow her into the newly blown hole. The ants that just ran away from the group now come back in larger numbers into the cavity. Luz and Maddie grab their legs and run as fast as they can with an army of Barbari Ants behind them.
As soon as they both slip through the opening, Marcy throws in... something, causing purple tendrils to shoot out of the ground and seal the opening.
"Instavines! Bred 'em myself." Marcy says proudly, pointing at her creation.
After a short breather, Luz asks "Okay, what's next?"
"I'll give you some stinkshrooms already. As soon as we get to the queen's chamber, we'll split up and position her in such a way that the queen has no choice but to flee. All the other Barbari-Ants will follow her immediately"
"Won't the queen notice us and attack?", Luz asks.
"In contrast to the workers, the queen is completely blind. However, her hearing and sense of smell are better developed. If we are particularly quiet and keep as many gases in us as possible, nothing bad should happen.", Marcy explains as the girls walk through a rather small tunnel.
Luz walks next to Marcy and chats with her about everything she has learned here in Amphibia, until she suddenly notices that Maddie is a little further behind the other two girls. Marcy continues to walk normally, but Luz waits for Maddie to catch up.
She asks "Okay Maddie, what's going on? You seem to be having some trouble right now... Is that sword too heavy? Do you want me to carry it?"
"No thanks, I'm fine. I'm just still tired... But as soon as we're done here, I'll try to get some sleep at Iva's."
Luz doesn't comment on this, but knows that Maddie isn't doing as well as she pretends. Not only is she less communicative than usual, her mind seems to be completely elsewhere and she seems to have a hard time walking in a straight line. Maybe she's sick somehow, which Luz has a hard time proving or disproving because she has no idea about frog anatomy. Maybe she was cursed. Luz would like to suspect Andrias for that, but that would be a bit too much paranoia. The fact that Luz has no idea what's going on with Maddie and they are about to face off against the queen of an aggressive species of ants worries Luz more than she would like.
The tunnel the girls are in opens into another large cavity and Marcy appears to be waiting for Luz and Maddie at the entrance, crouched behind a larger rock.
Reaching her, Marcy whispers, "That's the queen over there."
All three girls look inconspicuously from behind the stone and see a huge creature, for which this one cavity seems to be much too small.
"As I said before, she's pretty much blind. So be quiet and when you've placed all the charges come back here", Marcy continues.
Maddie and Luz nod before all three of them split off in different directions. All try to be extra quiet while placing a stinkshroom every few meters. Only the queen can be heard laying a few eggs and covering them with a viscous liquid that is better left unspecified.
The silence in the cavity is broken when a sudden thump is heard, followed by a metallic clank. Everyone looks around the room and eyes fall on Maddie, who seems to be lying on the floor, motionless.
Luz and Marcy exchange a panicked look as the Queen seems to have noticed Maddie too.
She lets out a high-pitched squeal, opens her mouth and lashes out with her tongue, which grabs the unconscious Maddie like a prehensile arm and jerkily pulls back.
"MADDIE!" shouts Luz.
Marcy runs over to Luz "It's alright, she's still alive."
"How would you know that?"
Marcy drags Luz to a point in the cavity where it is possible to see incoming light through the queen and a dark spot is shown inside her.
"I can save her", claims Marcy.
"What? How?" asks Luz in disbelief.
"I'm going to jump in the queen's mouth and get Maddie out of there"
"What? Are you crazy?"
The cavity fills with more and more Barbari-Ants.
"Yes. But I know what I'm doing. I've studied them... Can you distract the smaller ants?"
"Fine... ...but please keep quiet about what you are about to see"
Marcy looks confused for a moment, but immediately starts sprinting and jumping over several Barbari-Ants towards the queen. At the same time, she sees several ants in front of her being hit by fireballs and vines sprouting from the ground. Marcy takes her crossbow, aims it at a rock hanging from the ceiling, draws herself up in the air, and pours straight into the queen's maw.
After Luz just saw out of the corner of her eye how the queen's maw snapped shut after Marcy jumped in, Luz sprints straight towards the tunnel the group originally came from. Several ants follow her, which Luz tries to fend off with fireballs. She uses an Ice Glyph, which covers the ground immediately around her in black ice, causing several ants to lose their balance crashing into the cave walls.
Luz uses this moment to take a deep breath as her attention falls on the queen, who is making strange noises.
It looks like the queen is about to throw up when Marcy suddenly shoots out of her mouth with the still unconscious Maddie under her arm, landing right next to Luz.
"Marcy, that was..." Luz stops before gasping "Your eyes... They are-"
"No time. The stinkshrooms are about to blow up. Run!" Marcy calls before she runs into the tunnel, Luz immediately behind her.
Halfway through the tunnel, the tunnel is shaken by violent tremors, causing Marcy and Luz to lose their balance. A lot of roaring can be heard, the distance of which continues to grow.
"It worked. The Barbari-Ants are retreating inland", Marcy cheers before continuing "We should get out of here quickly. In the long run, the steam can cause permanent damage."
Luz just nods, but is still completely focused on Marcy's eyes, whose green glow is slowly changing back to its original color.
Suddenly, Luz' train of thought is interrupted by a noise that can only be identified as snoring. She and Marcy look confused at Maddie
"She's... sleeping? How?" Luz asks.
"Luz... maybe we should talk when we get back to the tent", Marcy suggests as she gets back to her feet, still carrying Maddie and walking toward the exit with Luz next to her.
Instead of going back to the tent, the girls decided to chat at Iva's without fear of being overheard by three annoying Newts. Upon arriving at Iva's house, Iva herself had just been preparing for lectures later in the day. Seeing that Maddie was unconscious, Iva expressed immense concern, which fortunately was allayed by the explanation that she was merely asleep.
"Is there anything else I can be of service to you before I leave for university, Master Marcy?" Iva asks.
Before Marcy can answer, Luz comes into Iva's living room "Maddie seems totally exhausted. I hope she can catch up on some sleep here now."
"Were there any signs in the palace that something was wrong, Luz?"
"Nothing I know of. Maybe she had seen ghosts and couldn't sleep because of that...", Luz jokes, "I think we'll have to wait until she wakes up again."
"Exactly. Anyway, I'm off to my evening lectures now. If you need anything, you can get me at any time.", Iva explains.
"Thank you, Iva"
"See you tomorrow, Luz. Master Marcy", Iva bids farewell and leaves the house.
"Why does everyone call you 'Master' Marcy?" Luz asks curiously.
"Well, when I got here, King Andrias took me in and gave me an honorary title so I could move around the palace freely. And apparently that's a big deal."
"Cool. At home, most people just called me 'Luz, the human'"
Confusion spread across Marcy's face, which amuses Luz.
"I see I should explain that... You see, before I got here in Amphibia, I was somewhere else. In a place called 'Boiling Isles'. It's kind of another world next to this one and Earth. I ran away from home at the beginning of the summer and had been living there in the demon realm ever since."
"Demons? That doesn't sound particularly inviting..." Marcy comments.
"Yes, but it's so much more than that", Luz hints, pulling out a glyph of light that activates it in front of Marcy. Her eyes widen at this sight.
"Magic?"
Luz grins. "Not only demons live there, but also witches and wizards. A society has established itself there that is not unlike that here in Amphibia or even on Earth. Maybe a little more dystopian on the islands than on Earth... But yes, I was able to learn magic there, albeit in a different way than the witches there."
"I want too... Can I try the light thing too?" Marcy asks, barely able to hide her excitement.
"It's a light glyph. But it probably won't work for you. Anne had already tried it...", Luz explains and pulls out a light glyph which she gives to Marcy.
Hesitantly, she taps the glyph, and as expected, nothing happens. Marcy is a little disappointed.
"Why are you telling me this right now? And not before?" Marcy asks, whereupon Luz' eyes go towards the floor.
"Well...", she says hesitantly, "I wasn't sure if I could trust you."
Marcy looks at Luz in horror. Luz continues "But then you saved Maddie's life...I can't tell how far that trust goes yet since you work directly for the King, but-"
"What does King Andrias have to do with this?" Marcy asks, whose terror has changed to confusion.
"When Maddie and I arrived here in Newtopia we ran into him at Andrias' birthday parade and we exchanged looks. His look had triggered an all too familiar feeling in me. One that tells me never to trust him or to cross his path. When I last had it, Emperor Belos had captured my mentor Eda on the Boiling Isles and was ready to petrify her. During my fight with him, somehow, I got dragged here to Amphibia and ended up in Toad Tower. And you know the rest..."
Now that Luz has revealed her secret to Marcy, the room has been quiet for a while. Luz's gaze never left the ground while she was talking.
After a few more minutes, Marcy speaks "That... is quite a lot...".
Nothing more can be heard of Marcy's previously excited nature. Instead, her voice is filled with... concern.
"I think... I should leave. I won't tell King Andrias what you just told me, Luz. I have to think... If you want, I can come back tomorrow..."
"That would be nice"
"Good night", Marcy says as she leaves Iva's house and makes her way back to the palace.