The Owl House of Amphibia

by Iron117Prime

Four human girls, so different and so alike, find themsleves thrown into new worlds of magic, danger, wonder, and horror. As they explore their new surroundings, they not only meet new friends and new enemies, but also discover more about themselves than what they felt before. All it took was a box and a door to change their lives, and the lives of all those around them, forever.

9. Witches in Wartwood

Hi everyone. Well, here we are. The very first chapter of the official first season saga of my series. We've got something particularly interesting happening here and I can't wait for you all to read it.

With that being said, let's get into it.

Witches in Wartwood

It had been three days since Luz had made herself at home in the Owl House and she still couldn't believe it. She was living in a whole other world. A world where magic was real! A place where monsters and witches walk around like it's a typical Monday the same way humans do on Earth. Not to mention their home was a literal giant skeleton that laid in a boiling ocean. Any normal person would be terrified of such a place.

In fact, she was terrified before. Back when she did her first 'job' for the owner of the house Eda, her now-mentor in all things magical, and self-proclaimed strongest witch in the Boiling Isles, was helping with her deliveries. One customer had her fooled into thinking that he was a wizard who wanted to send her on a magical quest. Only to end up being kidnapped by a demon with illusionary powers and used as bait to draw in Eda. Thankfully, Eda was able to rescue her and the two beat the creature back.

And right afterwards, Eda had taken Luz and the adorable little demon that she was living with, King, on a flight on her magic-staff, or Palisman as Eda called it, to get an aerial view of the Isles. It was honestly the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. What she saw and the words she heard from Eda back there were things she would never forget.

'Look kid, everyone wants to believe their chosen. But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we'd die waiting. That's why you, need to choose yourself.'

And she did choose. Luz chose to learn magic from Eda. And she chose to stay in this mysterious, dangerous, and wondrous place to find the only other friends she ever had. Aside from Eda and King of course.

But then… there was also Hooty. The 'house demon' as Eda referred him to as he seemed to be a literal part of the Owl House. Luz, honestly didn't know what to think about him. On one end, he seemed nice, and his owl-like face was kinda cute. But on the other… the way he… does things… People used to call Luz weird for doing things that were 'abnormal' but that house demon… she had seen him cough up some things that she'd honestly rather not think about. She didn't want to call him weird or gross or anything, it might hurt his feelings. But… she wouldn't want to spend too much time with him either. Who knows though, maybe they'll warm up to each other. But right now, Luz had other matters to attend to.

Currently, the girl, the witch, the adorable little demon, and even the wooden owl were all gathered in Eda's living room as the witch brought out a map that showed the whole Boiling Isles as well as the surrounding sea and began explaining the topography of the area to Luz.

"…And lastly there's the Head." Eda pointed to the skull of the Titan. "That place is considered sacred ground. So much so that if you're not there without the Emperor's Coven's permission, you can kiss twenty years of your life goodbye as you rot in the Conformatorium."

"So, there's no chance of my friends being there either?" Luz asked.

"Humans aren't exactly a common sight around here." Eda said. "Plus, if they're anything like you, they'd cause quite a commotion. I've been to your world and seen how big some of your cities are, the Isles itself is pretty big but it's not so big that you can just blow up some random building without everyone else living here hearing about it. If your friends did get zapped here through that music box thing, we'd know about it."

"Do buildings really get blown up here?" Luz asked. "I mean… they do on Earth sometimes. Usually because of a gas leak or a terrorist attack… but it's not like a magic phenomenon like a geyser or anything?"

Eda shrugged. "Meh."

"Hey, I got a question." King raised his hand. "Why do you call the Human Realm, Earth?"

"Well, that's the name of our planet." Luz replied.

"That's like calling your home 'dirt'." King said. "Who wants to name their home 'dirt'?"

"Hey, I didn't make up the name." Luz replied. "And Earth is actually an awesome element. Aside from rock walls and stuff, you can grow so much food from it! Earth literally sustains life! So, I'd say my planet has an awesome name!" Luz argued playfully. "So, there!"

"A logical counterargument." King blinked. "As king, I hereby forbid the use of logical counterarguments!"

"Why, because you can't win otherwise?" Luz teased, causing King to grumble and Eda to chuckle. "Hey uh, speaking of other worlds… are there really any other worlds out there?" Luz asked Eda. "You said that myths on Earth are inspired by what you guys got here. And there's a lot of different myths out there that have other realms. In fact, Norse mythology has nine realms in total. And there's the whole multiverse theory we got today, which is really cool."

"No idea." Eda answered. "The portal only lets me travel between my world and yours, and nobody here talks about any other realms. If there are any other worlds out there, I don't know about em."

"Okay… so what about this world?" Luz looked at the map again. "You talked about the Boiling Isles, but are there other places in the Demon Realm? We got seven continents back home. Maybe there are other Titan skeletons."

"Again, no idea." Eda replied as she looked to the map again. "There are a few small islands scattered across the Boiling Sea." She pointed to a few spots. "But I've been, and nobody actually lives there."

"And nobody's ever tried to go further?" Luz asked in surprise. "No exploration parties? No journeys of discovery into the unknown?"

"They can't." Eda expanded the map a bit more to show an illustration of what appeared to be storm clouds all erratically encircling a large area surrounding the Boling Isles and the sea. "See this? It's the Maelstrom." She gestured to the storm clouds. "It's basically a giant circle of storm walls that completely cut off anyone who tries to make it past the Boiling Sea."

"And you can't use magic to get through it? No teleportation spell or anything?" Luz asked in wonder.

"Funny enough, all magic in that area just shuts down." Eda explained. "Magic items, spells, just sptt." She spat her tongue out for emphasis. "One time when I was your age, I flew there because I was feeling a bit extra daring, and a tad stupid. Once I got there though, Owlbert went catatonic." She revealed.

"Hoot." Owlbert added, showing that it was true. Like he had suddenly became unresponsive in that one moment.

"I tried to use my magic, but nothing came out." Eda spun her own finger to generate a sphere of light before closing her hand to shut it out. "I would have fallen straight into the Boiling Sea had Rai… Had a friend of mine follow me out there. Really gave me a harsh talking-to right after." She said that one part softly before speaking up again. "Not to mention the Maelstrom itself is insane, even by Demon Realm standards. It's a perpetual storm that constantly shifts and change. One second, you got lightning and thunder, the next it's a wall of fire, and one second after that it's a blizzard. Trust me kid, if you go there… you. Will. Die."

Luz was taken aback just by how serious Eda spoke. Most of the stuff that the witch had spoken to her since meeting her have been in the form of jokes, with the occasional heartwarming statement… but there was none of that here. One look in Eda's eyes and Luz could tell right away she was dead serious. Emphasis on the 'dead' part.

"Okay… stay away from the giant anti-magic death-storm. Got it." Luz held up her hands before sighing. "Still doesn't' help me find my friends."

Eda's expression softened at that. In the three days since she's known this kid, she could tell that she was taking the self-appointed task of finding her friends very seriously. She didn't know a whole lot about these other girls, other than that they were probably the only friends that Luz ever had, and now they were gone. Not only was the kid worried sick about them, but she probably felt lonely, missing them a great deal. And Eda knew exactly what that was like. To have friends and then lose them all because of… something that the kid didn't need to know about right now. First things first. She made a promise to help the kid find her friends and she would do just that.

"Well, the old tower's got some dusty stuff that I never bothered to went through." Eda said as she stood up. "Let's go see if there's anything on that music box you were talking about."

That seemed to pick Luz's spirits up a bit as she stood up with a smile, causing Eda to smile back.

"Yeah! Let's hurry up and find more subjects for me to command!" King proclaimed as he stood up on the table and gave a hardy laugh. "Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

"Awe, who's a cute widdle tyrant?" Luz gushed as she held King close.

"Let go of me! I command you!" The little guy struggled.

---

The door that led to the inside of the giant stone tower that laid behind the Owl House had opened, causing a gust of dusty air to blow out. Clearly that door hadn't been opened in years. Luz and King coughed a bit as Eda drew a magic circle to conjure up some wind to blow it all away before pulling out Owlbert's staff form. She dropped the bottom of the staff on the ground to spread a wave of magic light to illuminate the insides.

The inside of the tower had a single circular wall with some stone stairs that led up to the wooden ceiling that probably served as an attic of sorts before getting to the roof. But there was also various chests, boxes, all covered in dust and cobwebs, indicating that they had not been touched in a very long time.

"Just curious…" Luz coughed. "Is Spring Cleaning a thing in the Demon Realm…?" She punched her chest to get the last of the coughs out before they all entered the inside of the tower with Luz opening up a few of the boxes to see some old and moldy papers, broken glass and wood of various objects that were so worn out, it was hard to identify much of anything. "What is all this stuff?"

"Heck if I know." Eda replied. "A bunch of old stuff that's probably worth jack squat if I tried to sell it."

"No offense, but isn't this your home, Eda?" Luz asked as she took out an old book and flipped through the pages "How do you not know what's in your own home?"

"This tower was already here when I moved in." The witch explained. "Only went inside once to see if I could sell anything in it. And like I said, this stuff is worth zilch, so I just closed the door and never opened it again. Never really had a need to."

As Luz continued to look through some of the boxes, King ended up stumbling inside a chest and rummaged through some of the old paper before pulling out what looked like a black scepter. "Behold, my staff of power!" King proclaimed. "With this, I shall conquer all of the Isles! And all demon-kind will quake in my…

Eda simply blew on the so-called scepter, revealing an old and worn-out toilet brush.

"Oh yeah. All hail the mighty king of toilets." Eda cracked.

"Killjoy!" King threw it to the ground.

As they went about their usual mischief, Luz, having rummaged through most of the stuff on the ground floor, ended up going up the steps towards the second floor. Opening up the ceiling door, she climbed her way up into a smaller room that had only a few other boxes and chests. There was a small wooden ladder that led up to another ceiling door to the ceiling above. Getting curious, Luz climbed up the ladder and opened up that door to see that she was on the roof. While there, she got a rather nice view of the Boiling Sea that wasn't all that far from the building.

"Huh, not bad." She said with a small smile. "Not as great as what Eda showed me… but maybe it could be good for some star gazing."

However, she was on the ladder for too long. It was worn out so much that it couldn't hold her weight, causing it to break and for her to fall back inside with a yelp, hitting the floor somewhat hard.

"Ow!" She rubbed her side where she landed, but as she did, she noticed a twinkle of light in the corner of her eye. The source of it came from in-between two boxes.

Getting back up, Luz pushed the boxes away to reveal what appeared to be a tiny stone. One that was in a curled up and swirling shape and seemed to shine a mixture of various colors from red to blue to green to yellow.

"Well, don't you look pretty." She said aloud before making her way back down into the main floor, where Eda was trying to yank King out of an old vase that his head appeared to be stuck in.

"Damn it, King! How many times have I told you not to get your head stuck!" Eda said as she tried to yank him out by his body with Owlbert pulling on the vase itself with his talons.

"You never tell me stuff like that!" King argued as Eda continued to pull. "Ow! Ow!" After one last tug, King was yanked out with enough force to propel the two to the wall.

"Guys, look what I found!" Luz quickly came down to show them the colorful stone. "Some kind of magic stone thing!"

Eda stood up as Owlbert hopped onto her shoulder before she picked it up to look at it closely. "Hmm." She rubbed her fingers along it, and even licked it, much to Luz's disgust. "It's not stone… it's wood."

"Wood?" Luz asked in confusion as King hoped up and down to try and snatch it from Eda's grip. "But… wouldn't it… have worn out after so long? Like you said, nobody's been in here for a long time."

Eda licked her lips slightly, while still keeping the object up high and out of King's grasp as he continued to hop up and try to get it. "It's not just any wood…." Her eyes slowly widnened as she finally got the taste figured it. "It's Palistrom wood!"

"Hoot?" Even Owlbert was surprised by that.

"Palistrom?" Luz looked in confusion.

"A type of tree that all Palismen are carved from, like Owbert." Eda explained. "Which means that this thing is probably a…" She rubbed her finger more along its side, rather roughly, almost like she was trying to stir something awake.

Just then, the object began to uncurl in an organic like manner, almost as if it were alive. As it did, it took a more distinct shape, one that resembled a four-legged amphibian with an elongated and colorful rainbow-like body. It was red at its head, orange at the neck, yellow at the base of its body up to its front legs, green up till its back legs which were blue along with the base at the tail, indigo up to the half-way point of said tail, and violet at the very tip of it. It stretched its body out and opened its mouth with a cute little noise like it was waking up from a long nap before its eyes opened up, revealing yellow eyes and black pupils.

Luz, Eda, Owlbert, and King all looked in surprise as the colorful and mysterious Palisman looked at them all in curiosity.

"What is that thing?" King questioned. "It's gross…"

"It looks… like a salamander." Luz observed.

Eda almost couldn't believe it. There was a Palisman living in this tower the whole time? How long had it been here? Was it here hiding from the Emperor's Coven? She wouldn't be surprised if that were the case given how those guys were always hunting wild Palismen. But still, she'd never seen one quite like this before, and her father had carved a lot unique Palismen back when she was young.

The salamander looked around at all of those gathered around it before directing its gaze towards Eda. It blinked at her for a moment before she herself spoke.

"Where did you come from?"

Almost in direct response to that question, the salamander hoped from the palm of her hand to the ground and stretched more before something unexpected happened. A line of flames appeared along its back, much to everyone's surprise. And just like the salamander's own body, the flames were all the colors of the rainbow.

It then began to run around the group, causing them to circle up against each other before it picked up speed, moving so fast that it almost seemed like a blur. In fact, it almost seemed like the salamander had become a blur off flames that suddenly extended upward and surrounded the whole group in a circular wall of multi-colored flames.

Luz couldn't help but stare up mesmerized at the colored fire. It was beautiful.

"Kid, get back!" Eda suddenly grabbed her by her collar and pulled her close along with King. Owlbert converted into his staff mode as Eda was ready to defend them as the cyclone of flames condensed around them.

However, the flames touched, and none of them ended up being burnt by it. Even as the flames engulfed all four of them.

The cyclone condensed so much that it vanished soon after. And when it did, there was no trace of any of them there. Not even burn marks on the ground.

Eda, King, Luz, and Owlbert. They were gone. Disappeared completely.

---

Meanwhile, in some other location was a large swampland. It had moist ground, green grass that spread out in all directions along with large green trees, and beautiful blue skies with clouds and a bright sun that hung over head. One could even mistake it for Earth, if it weren't for a group of giant dragonflies that flew across the sky, one carrying a talking anthropomorphic frog.

"Help! Somebody help me!" The frog cried out as he was being carried away.

The natural peace however, was interrupted by a column of multi-colored flames that emerged from the ground. The flames soon expanded and extinguished themselves as Luz, Eda, Owlbert, and King all stumbled out and were scattered across the muddy ground.

The salamander talisman that had brought them here via those unusual magic flames scurried up a rock as it eyed the group that picked itself up.

"Everyone okay?" Eda asked as Owlbert flew onto her shoulder with a hoot.

"Define okay…" King said as he brushed the mud off his body and Luz pulled herself up from a large puddle.

"That was crazy." The Latina said as she brushed off the mud and dirt from her person. "All those different colors in the fire and…" She ended up looking around at all her surroundings. This was nothing at all like the Demon Realm she was previously in. "Guys… where are we?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." Eda answered as she and King looked around as well. "It kinda looks like the Human Realm almost, what with the blue sky and green plants but…" She happened to sit down on a log, only for the log to suddenly shake, pushing Eda off as the group looked to see a pair of insect-legs stick out from the sides of the log and the head of a giant bug to poke out from one end before it walked away.

"Yep. Definitely not Earth." Luz said with wide eyes.

"How do you know?" King asked.

"For one, bugs aren't nearly that big." Luz replied before looking back at Eda. "Is this another part of the Demon Realm? Maybe we got teleported or something?"

"It's definitely not any place I know." Eda said. "But I betchya that fiery troublemaker knows. Fan out! Find him!" She ordered, causing the trio to split up and look around the area, while the salamander in question had scurried up a tree and observed from a tall branch, concealing itself between some leaves.

Luz looked through a bush but didn't seem to find what she was looking for. "Come out little salamander." She called out. "I promise I won't hurt you."

Eda spun a green magic circle with her fingers, causing he bushes in front of her to grow as the roots underneath extended, shooting the bushes up to reveal a clear area… or so it thought as she spotted two large lizards, one male and one female, doing something that caused her to smirk somewhat. 'Someone's busy.'

"Hey, Eda!" Acting quickly, Eda used her magic again to bring the bushes back as down Luz approached her. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing that you need to worry about until your older, kid." The older woman said before walking away, leaving Luz somewhat confused before she just shrugged and went along.

King happened to stumble and push his way through several bushes. "Stupid plants! Make way for the king of demons!" As he continued to push through, he grumbled in realization. "Right, plants don't have ears. There's gotta be someone here that'll listen to…" When he pushed away some more plants, he happened to stumble into something that had six glowing red eyes staring down at him. "Perfect! You there, multi-eyed creature! I demand your visual expertise!" He pointed to what was in front of him.

King's high-pitched scream drew Eda and Luz's attention as the tiny demon ran out from the bushes he was searching in. Only for a giant scorpion to emerge with a high-pitched roar. The giant creature was covered in black armor and had red eyes, with a large set of claws and a very deadly stinger tail that dripped something corrosive on the ground.

The tiny demon quickly ran into Luz's arms as the girl backed away in fright as she fell on her back. "This thing does not respect my authority!" King screamed.

Luz then screamed as she split her legs to avoid the giant scorpion's tail that was thrusted into the ground. It hissed at Luz and King, both screaming as the girl held her small friend. Only for a large fireball to blast the creature back away from the kids, the one who did it happened to be Eda as she quickly stood in front of her charges to face the creature as it rubbed its armored face to brush the flames off.

"Tough guy, huh? Let's see how tough." With Owlbert coming into his staff form, Eda slammed the end of her staff onto the ground, spreading a wave of magic underneath the scorpion before a giant hole opened up, causing the scorpion to fall in as a pair of large fangs formed inside the hole like a mouth before it closed. The mouth of the ground chewed rather hard, with the sounds of struggling and gross squishy noises coming from inside before it all died down. The mouth the burped before closing up, the giant scorpion now dead and buried.

"Well, that was easy." The witch smirked as she brushed her hair.

"Uh Eda… I think that thing came from a nearby nest." Luz said from behind.

"What makes you say that?" She asked, turning around to the sound of Luz's voice only to blink in surprise as four more scorpions emerged from the foliage, causing Luz and King to back up in fright.

"Just a guess." Luz gulped as King buried his face into Luz's shoulder in fright.

As all the scorpions gave high pitched roars, Eda got serious as she picked up Luz, and by extension King, and put them on Owlbert's staff form. "You two just stick in the air! I'll handle this!" She slapped the side of her staff, causing Owlbert's wings to extend as he took to the air with Luz and King riding on, leaving Eda to face the scorpions alone as she created a double-bladed staff of ice with one hand and a fire ball in the other. "Alright boys, come to Mama!"

---

Wartwood, a relatively small village in the wonderous world of Amphibia. It was home to several anthropomorphic frogs who went about their normal day the same way humans would. It was built over a swamp and had several buildings that looked like they were carved from giant mushrooms, trees, or fallen over logs such as houses, stores, restaurants. There was even a market where various stands were built up to sell various items to the residents of the village including produce, bugs as meat, tools and other objects.

Little frogs played in the streets as adults went about their daily business like any other day in Wartwood. And one such group was a family of frogs as they loaded up on stuff from the local market onto a wagon that was mounted to their pet snail, Bessie.

The oldest and one, who appeared to be the one in charge, was an orange-skinned elderly frog who had orange skin with slightly orange eyes and black pupils, as well as grey hair along the sides of his head. He currently wore a grayish-green waistcoat with a buttoned yellow shirt and a light blue ascot, along with grayish-brown trousers, and light brown socks resembling spats that slightly covered his feet.

He along with one young frog in particular were helping to load up barrels of produce and items into the wagon. The young frog appeared to be male with pinkish-red skin, and a pink-underbelly. He had blue eyes and orange hair underneath his dark green forested hat that came with a pair of goggles. The rest of his attire consisted of a sleeveless green jacket that he wore open along with a pair of black shorts.

The last member of this frog family did nothing except sit in her barrel as she watched her grandfather and brother load up the supplies. She was a small, purple-skinned polliwog with purple eyes and unlike the rest of her family, she only had a set of tiny arms and no legs, just a small little tail. Her only attire consisted of a yellow bowtie with polka dots.

"You guys done yet?" The little tadpole asked rather rudely. "We've been here for almost an hour!"

"Hold your snails, Polly." The elder frog lightly chastised as he loaded up a barrel. "We lost a lot in that flood the other night and got a lot we need to replace. Good thing we had a good harvest last year, or else we wouldn't have nearly enough money."

"Well this should be the last of it, Hop Pop." The boy frog said to his grandfather as he put one more bucket in. "How's it coming in there, Anne?" He called to his new friend who just emerged from the store with a barrel in her arms. But unlike everyone else in Wartwood, this was not another frog he was referring to. No, this was a human girl…

Who appeared to be locked in an argument with another frog.

"What in the world makes you think I wanna eat frogs anyway?!" The Thai girl questioned as she stepped outside with her barrel with a female frog stepping out after her. "You guys don't even look tasty."

"Oh, so I'm not good enough for you, weird creature?" The female frog argued.

"Pretty sure you're not good for anyone, Karen!" Anne argued back.

"That's not my name!" The female frog shot back. The two locked heads with growls until Hop Pop came in and broke it up.

"Alright, alright that's enough. You get along now." The elderly frog told the lady frog. "And keep all your sass to yourself."

"Hmmp. I swear Hopediah Plantar, that thing is gonna be the death of us all!" She pointed to Anne one last time before stomping away.

Hop Pop sighed before turning to the girl. "You okay, Anne?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." She sighed in relief.

"Sorry, this turned into a bit of a thing." The boy frog apologized as he hopped onto Anne's shoulder. "Would have found the town would have been used to you by now."

"It's only been about three days, Sprig." Hop Pop told his grandson. "It's gonna take way longer than that for this small-minded community to accept something different."

"If at all." Polly added.

"Thanks guys. Really helping my self-esteem right now." Anne said as she loaded up the last basket. "So can we go back to the house now?" She asked somewhat dejectedly.

"Yep, that's everything." Hop Pop said as they all got in with the elder frog grabbing the reigns. "Get a move on, Bessie."

The giant snail gave a chirp in response as she moved down the road, carrying everything and everyone in the wagon behind her. As they left the main town square, Anne sat back dejectedly against the wagon's walls as she took out her BFF photo, which had the picture of herself and her three friends.

Seeing how down Anne was, Sprig moved over to her. "Hey, how about when we get home, we play a round of tongue-tag?" He suggested. "But since your tongue can't stretch out like mine can…" He spat out his own yellow tongue for emphasis before pulling it back in. "You can just touch me with your arm."

"So, just tag, huh?" Anne replied before smiling. "Yeah, I think I can go along with that. Thanks Sprig."

"Anytime." Sprig smiled back, happy to see that he had successfully lifted her spirits.

Ever since Anne had arrived in this world, she was beyond lost. Her clothes were a mess, she only had miniscule supplies in her own backpack, though her tennis racket could make for a good weapon, but her hair was stuffed with leaves and twigs, and she even lost one of her shoes. Her first day, she was just barely surviving a swamp filled with giant bugs and sleeping in a log before accidentally stumbling into this town of walking talking frogs where she was immediately attacked and accused of being a frog-eating monster. Well, all except for Sprig, this little frog boy who took a few minutes to hear her side of the story and defend her… after helping the town to fight off a giant praying mantis that is.

Afterwards, Sprig's family, the Plantars, had brought Anne into their home. It was nice to at least have a roof over her head and a place to sleep until she could find a way to get back to Earth and find her friends. But apparently, the only way out of this valley where Wartwood was in was through the mountains, which were particularly deadly this time of year, which meant she was stuck here for two months.

But it wasn't all that bad. Sprig was a cool little frog who really helped her, which she was grateful for. Polly was cute and very chaotic. She didn't really have the chance to get the know the little tadpole girl, but her antics seemed fun. And there was Hop Pop, who was pretty strict, not unlike her own parents… but he did bring her into his house without asking for anything in return, though he did scare her with the threat to kick her out for that whole mess with his prized cane, even if it was just a way for her to respect him, it still scared her. But other than that, things were at least stable right now, which only made her slightly less stressful. Still though, she hadn't seen any of her friends these past three days and she was beyond worried about them. What she wouldn't give to know that they were alright.

Suddenly, a loud explosion had caught their attention.

"Whoa, what was that?!" Anne questioned as Hop Pop pulled on Bessie's reigns to stop her as the whole family listened to the sounds of explosions, yells, and animal cries. "Sounds like a warzone…"

"A warzone?! Let me at em!" Polly hoped out of her bucket and pulled out a rolling pin. "The sounds of battle call to me!"

Sprig noticed a few flashes of light past the trees on his right. "It's coming from that way!" he pointed in that direction.

"And we're going in the exact opposite direction!" Hop Pop had snapped the reigns to get Bessie to move along. "First rule of survival, move away from the explosions! You never know what sort of mayhem you'll walk into… Hey!" He saw Anne and Sprig jump out of the wagon and run to the direction of the apparent battle they were hearing. "Darn kids. Polly, you stay here and watch Bessie!" Hop Pop climbed out of the seat and followed after them.

Left alone, Polly blinked for a few seconds before looking towards Bessie. The chaotic little polliwog raised her eyebrows in the snail's direction with a knowing smirk.

---

Eda threw her fireball at the ground, quickly raising a wall of flames to keep two scorpions from coming at her while the other two were coming at her from behind.

"Look out Eda!" Luz called to her as she and King continued to remain safely in the air thanks to Owlbert's staff. But Eda apparently had the situation under control as when one scorpion tried to lash out its stinger at her, Eda had raised a mound of mud from the ground that not only blocked the stinger, but even caught it as the mound molded into a large hand, which Eda quickly raised up high, pulling the scorpion up well over thirty feet in the air, while Eda herself rolled out of the way to avoid the stinger and claws of the other scorpion before throwing her fist down, leading to the giant hand to pull the first scorpion back down and smash it into the other, causing them both to splatter as orange goo and their remains were sprayed everywhere.

The last two scorpions pushed through the fire and made their way to Eda, who spung her finger and aimed it closer to the ground as a blue magic circle had formed, leading to a patch of ice to spread at the feet of the last two scorpions, who quickly lost their traction as they slipped and fell.

"You got some strong armor there, and probably some soft underbellies too." The Owl Lady grinned as she slapped her hand on the ice, leading to multiple spikes of ice to shoot out from the frozen patch and impale the scorpions' soft underbellies, skewering them on the inside before they both fell over dead just like the others. Eda then dusted her hands like it was nothing. "Mama's still got it." She gave a whistle, prompting Owlbert to fly down in his staff form, brining Luz and King back to the ground, with the small demon walking over to one scorpion corpse.

"Ha, ha! That's what you get for trying to mess with the king of demons!" He proclaimed dramatically.

"That… was… Awesome!" She squealed in delight.

"I know, I know, keep the praise coming." Eda was just basking in the complements.

"Four giant scorpions, and you took them down in minutes!" Luz continued. "I bet even Azura would have a hard time with them! Oh man, Marcy would…"

"Luz?"

Gasping at the sound of a familiar voice, Luz slowly turned around to see a certain someone making her way through the trees to see the girl herself, looking absolutely shocked to see her.

"Oh my god… Luz is that you?!" Anne exclaimed.

The second she saw her, Luz's own eyes grew with emotion. "Anne…?" She wasted no time in bolting at her with high speeds. "ANNE!" Luz leapt at her, wrapped her arms around Anne tightly as they both fell to the ground. "You're here…! I… I can't believe it…!"

"Luz, you….! Oh my god… this is amazing…!" Anne sounded just as emotional, clearly happy to see Luz again as the two girls pulled themselves up from the ground. "How are you here?! Are Sasha and Marcy with you?!"

"I don't know… I thought they were with you and the box and…" Luz stumbled, clearly going through all her emotions as she hugged Anne again with all her might, like she was afraid that she'd disappear again if she let go. "I'm just so glad I found you…!" She cried.

Anne smiled herself, tears in her eyes as she hugged Luz back. "Same here."

Eda blinked for a moment. She recognized this other human from the times Luz had shown that picture of her friends, and from the way Luz was acting, this was clearly one of the friends she had been looking for. Huh, they had found her without even trying too. Pretty crazy. But still, despite only knowing this girl for a few days, Eda was happy to see Luz this relieved at finding one of her friends, evident by her own smile.

"Hey, who's that?" King asked as he trotted over.

"Oh, just one of Luz's friends." Eda explained as the two girls stood back up.

"I still can't believe this… I wasn't even trying find you…" Luz went on as her emotions began to settle. "I mean, I wanted to find you and the others, but I didn't think it be like this… it's why I wanted to learn from Eda, oh wait… I need to introduce you! Eda! King! Get over here!" Luz called over, finally brining Anne's attention to the other two who were behind her just as a certain pink frog hopped his way out of the woods.

"Anne, you shouldn't go off by yourself!" Sprig said. "You still don't know the…" The little frog boy then had his attention taken by the other girl and witch who had a similar body frame. "Holy frog! More dangly-arm creatures!"

"Sprig, it's okay. She's my friend." Anne quickly assured before turning back to Luz. "Looks like we both got some introductions. I'll go first. Luz, this is Sprig." Anne gestured to the frog behind her. "Get this, we're in a world of talking frogs!"

"And giant bugs, apparently." Luz gestured to the scorpion corpses behind her and her friends.

"Yep, giant bugs too." Anne confirmed. "Anyway, I ran into Sprig here about a day after I got zapped here. And after almost getting eaten by a giant praying mantis and attacked by an angry mob, Sprig and his family took me in." She then looked to the pink frog. "Sprig, this is Luz, one of the friends I told you about." Anne showed Sprig her BFF photo for emphasis.

"Oh." Sprig then hopped over to Luz. "Nice to meet ya. Anyone who's a friend of Anne's is a friend of mine." He spat in his own hand and offered it to shake.

"Oooh, spit shake." Luz hacked up her own saliva and spat in her palm to shake with Sprig. "Nice to meet you Sprig. Thanks for taking care of Anne."

"No problem." Sprig said before looking to Eda and King. "So, these guys friends of yours too? I've never seen that shorty furry thing before. Kinda looks like a furry skeleton with that head of his."

"Hey! Who are you calling short?!" King countered. "You're just as short as I am!"

Anne gasped the second she laid her eyes on King, her eyes growing wide with sparkles. "Oh… My… God…!" She squealed as she picked up the surprised King in her arms. "You are just the cutest widdle thing! I can hug and squeeze you all day!"

"No! Not again!" King squirmed as he tried to escape from Anne's grip, all while Eda laughed and Luz took out her phone to take a picture.

"That is King." Luz introduced. "He thinks he's a tyrant, but he's just the sweetest little bundle of joy." She said with a gushing smile.

"I am not sweet! I am feared!" King exclaimed. "Not release me or I will steal your soul!"

"Oh, that just makes you even cutter!" Anne gushed as she hugged King tighter before turning her attention to the gray-haired woman. "And who's the old lady?"

"Sorry… old lady?" Eda looked somewhat miffed at that.

"That's Eda and get this… she's a witch." Luz revealed, causing Anne to look at her with a blank expression, while still holding King who struggled to escape her grip.

"A witch." Anne repeated.

"Yep." Luz nodded.

"A witch-witch." Anne said again.

"Hmm, mmm." Luz smiled.

"Like the typical green-skinned, black robed, rides around on a broom stick while laughing and wanting to steal dogs type of witch?" Anne summed up.

"Well she doesn't have a broomstick, more like a magic staff made that's also an owl." Luz said. "And she can do magic. Oh yeah, magic's real, by the way."

"What… kind of magic…?" Anne questioned.

"Only all kinds," Eda stepped onto a scorpion's corpse. "And I'm not just any witch, dear child. I am Eda Clawthorne the Owl Lady! The most powerful witch in the Demon Realm!"

"'Demon… Realm…'?" Anne looked to Luz. "Did I hear that right?"

"Uh-huh." Luz nodded with a smile again. "Who do you think took out all those scorpions?"

That's when Anne and Sprig finally noticed all the giant scorpion remains, much to their own surprise. "I… didn't even notice all that. I was too distracted by the heartwarming reunion that you were having." Sprig said to Anne.

"Yeah, same here…" Anne said before it all came to her. "Wait…" She looked directly at Eda. "You took all these things down?"

"Got that right." Eda grinned as Owlbert flew to her shoulder and quickly morphed into its staff form, which she spun around in a golden magic circle high above her head to unleash a geyser of golden magic power that shined in all directions.

"Oooooh." Sprig and Anne's eyes were dazzling at the sight of it.

"She is so cool…" Luz never got tired of seeing Eda work her magic. Literally.

"You kids…!" Hop Pop pushed his way out of the foliage and into the clearing to see what was going on. "Why do you always run…" The elderly frog gasped at what he saw before him, with Eda continuing to demonstrate more of her magic to everyone. "What in Frog's name just happened?!"

"Oh, Hop Pop!" Sprig hopped to his grandfather. "We just found one of Anne's friends. That's that Luz girl and she's really nice and…"

"I don't care about that!" Hop Pop exclaimed. "Don't you know when there's this many scorpions around, that nest has gotta be nearby!"

That drew everyone else's attention as Eda stopped using her magic. "Wait… Nest?" Luz asked.

"That's right. And wherever there's a scorpion's nest…" Hop Pop began.

Only for a giant mound of ground to explode behind them all, causing them to turn around to see a an even larger scorpion emerge from the ground. But unlike the others, this one had a red exoskeleton with black eyes and was at least three times as bigger as all the ones that Eda just killed. It gave a loud and high-pitched roar onto all the smaller creatures before it.

"...There's always a queen." Hop Pop finished.

"Oh." That's all Luz could say before everyone screamed as they ran in multiple directions to avoid the massive stinger that it shot at them, creating a large hole in the ground upon impact.

"All of you get back!" Eda conjured a large fire-ball and used Owlbert's staff form to bat it at the scorpion queen, causing it explode in an inferno all around, much to the shock and amazement of Anne and the present Plantars.

"Holy crap… she is a witch…" Anne muttered with wide eyes.

"Toldya." Luz smiled.

However, those smiles faded as the queen scorpion emerged from the flames without a scratch on her, leading to Eda to hop onto her staff and fly away to avoid her claws and stinger while the Owl Lady flew around in circles to observe her opponent.

"Hmm, way sturdier than the others. Alright, let's see how sturdy!" Circling both her hands around for a giant blue magic circle, Eda shot a hail of ice-spikes at the scorpion queen.

In response to that, the giant creature aimed her tail forward as her stinger unleased a stream of purple liquid which melted away Eda's ice attack, prompting the Owl Lady to move out of the way where everyone watched as they saw the liquid fall down on a patch of trees and melt them almost instantly.

"That thing can shoot freaking acid?!" Anne exclaimed.

"Technically it's a highly corrosive venom." Hop Pop corrected.

"How is that any less horrifying?!" King exclaimed as well.

"It's not, I just like to be right." Hop Pop said simply.

The roars of the scorpion queen drew all their attention again as Eda appeared to be in a deadlock despite having the advantage in aerial maneuverability, throwing every fire ball, ice spike, and even plant roots from the ground around her. But the scorpion queen's thick hide protected her from the fire balls, its massive claws shattered the ice, and the venom shot from its stinger melted away Eda's plants. And when Eda got too close, the scorpion queen swiped one of its claws to successfully knock her down and off her staff, bringing her to the ground.

"Eda!" Luz ran for her.

"Luz, wait!" Anne chased after her as well, prompting Sprig, King, and Hop Pop to do the same.

Eda tried to push herself up as Luz came to her side to help her up, only for the scorpion queen to already be on them, raising one of its claws to try and strike at them… Eda had pushed Luz behind her and was prepared to take the hit for her…

Only for both she and Luz to look in complete and utter surprise to see Anne in front of them, standing her ground, and holding the claw back with what seemed like her bare strength alone.

"Anne…?" Luz couldn't believe it. She knew her friend was at least stronger than her… but to hold back something so large…

"Get out of here!" Anne turned around, her face being strained and covered in sweat showed she was just barely holding it back. But, neither she nor Eda seemed to notice that there was a faint glow of blue in Anne's eyes.

The scorpion queen raised her other claw to strike them down, only for a series of rocks to hit her in its face. "Hey ugly! Over here!" Sprig called to it as he used his sling shot to shoot more rocks at her, drawing her attention to the pink frog as she turned to him and lunged her tail at him, but Sprig hopped back and out of the way before using his sling shot to keep it distracted.

"Don't just stand there! Come on!" Hop Pop came in to grab Anne and Luz by their wrists and pull them away while King crawled up onto Eda's shoulder as she ran alongside them.

When Sprig leapt in the air to try and nail the scorpion queen again with more shots from his slingshot, the queen had managed to catch him mid-air with her right claw. "Oh that's not good." Sprig said before the queen pulled her down.

"Sprig, no!" Anne called out.

But before either of them could make a move…

"WAHOO!"

A high-pitched voice called out as a certain snail came in at super high speeds, with a wagon being towed behind her as a particular purple tadpole appeared to be at the reigns.

"Polly?!" Anne, Hop Pop, and Sprig did not expect this to happen.

"Bessie, things are getting messy!" Polly said, causing the snail to chirp before kicking it into overdrive, moving at twice the speed as before and gunning straight for the scorpion queen. When she saw she was close enough, Polly pulled hard on the reigns, leading Bessie to stop and turn, grinding to a halt while the momentum sent the cart, and all the supplies on board, crashing into the queen and knocking it down. "Whoo! Now that's how you do it! I am queen of the snails!" Polly proclaimed as she hoped up on Bessie's shell.

"Uh…" Luz looked to Anne, hopping for an explanation.

"Sprig's sister. Polly." The Thai girl summed up.

"Oh." That's all Luz could say.

Eda, while surprised at first, ended up smiling. Rather impressed with how much fight the little thing had in her.

Sprig fell onto the ground, in the middle of all the scattered supplies and right next to Bessie. "Ha, you owe me big time, Sprig!" Polly pointed to him with a grin.

"You also owe Hop Pop for all the supplies you just wrecked. So, who's the irresponsible one now, huh?" Sprig pointed out with a grin of his own.

Their squabble was interrupted as the scorpion queen turned herself up and over and re-emerged from the trees she was just slammed into. Sprig quickly hopped onto Bessie as the snail dashed away with her and Polly onboard.

"Okay seriously, how tough is that thing?!" King questioned.

"Scorpion queen shells are as hard as rocks." Hop Pop said. "You'd need something just as hard to break through."

"Just as hard huh…?" Luz muttered before looking around at all the bodies of the smaller scorpions that Eda just got rid of, as well as some of the hardware supplies that were scattered which included rope and other various tools. But what really drew Luz's attention was the stained purple marks with the sizzling sound coming from them, all from the queen's corrosive venom. "I got an idea!"

The scorpion queen roared as she chased Bessie, Sprig, and Polly with the elder of the Plantar siblings using his sling shot again to try and shake it off, but all it did was make her angrier. However, Eda quickly flew over on her staff and hung directly over the giant creature.

"Hey big lady! Bet you can't hit me up here!" The Owl Lady blew raspberries and waved her hands around. The queen hissed before she aimed her stinger again to shoot her corrosive venom… But Eda had anticipated it as she quickly spun a magic circle to absorb the venom before flying directly over and drawing another one. "Let's see how you like it!" From the second circle, all of that corrosive venom was poured directly onto the queen, causing her to cry in agony as her own shell began to melt and weaken from her own attack. "You're up, kid!"

Luz came charging in with King riding on her shoulders, while holding the severed claw of one dead scorpion, with Anne and Hop Pop by her side. The former held a severed stinger and the latter used a pair of broken legs. With the queen distracted by her pain and the venom weakening her own armor, the three of them thrusted and slashed their make-shift weapons into the queen's hide, piercing through and causing it to cry in agony even more. King even took out a hammer that he had picked up from the downed supplies and used it to smash the eyes of the queen as Luz had come up to her face.

The giant monster gave yet another roar as it flailed its tail and claws everywhere, knocking the group back and onto the ground. Anne then looked to Bessie, Sprig, and Polly before pulling out some nails and firecrackers tied together by rope.

"How does she have firecrackers in her hair again?!" She questioned to Luz.

"She's got lots of stuff in there! Just go with it!" The other girl replied before Anne tossed the tied firecrackers and nails to her frog-friend.

"Sprig, catch this and launch it at the queen's back!" Anne shouted to him as he caught the unusual payload.

"Polly, get us close!" Sprig told his sister.

"You heard em, Bessie!" Polly smacked Bessie's side, causing the snail to move in as close as she could to the heavily injured scorpion. Once close enough, Sprig hopped up as high as he could from Bessie's shell and spotted the spot Anne had told him about. It was where the rebounded venom had hit the queen, melting away most of the shell in the area and exposing its soft insides.

While airborne, Sprig loaded up his slingshot. "Eat this!" He fired the payload and scored a bullseye. The payload had struck not just the exposed flesh, but also some of the corrosive substance still here, which was enough to lite the firecrackers.

*BOOM!*

The queen's body was completely torn up from the inside. The firecrackers alone seared through her flesh, while all the attached nails had shredded whatever was left. Everyone regrouped together to observe that the queen scorpion's body appeared to be in a state that mixed being eviscerated and ripped in half.

"It's dead for sure this time, right?" King asked.

"Yep." Hop Pop confirmed.

"Definitely dead." Polly added.

"Kinda hard to come back from that." Sprig said as well.

Anne was the first to fall back onto her rear, with Luz right beside her. All the adrenaline wearing off as they took a moment to catch their breath.

"That was crazy…" Anne muttered.

"Yeah… but I've seen only slightly crazier." Luz said. "Like, maybe this was ranked number three for me."

"You only had three incidents, including this one." King pointed out.

"Wait… what?" Anne looked to Luz in surprise while the other girl laughed.

"Anne, I got so much to tell ya." But before anything else could be said, several frogs came out from the woods and started speaking up.

"What was that just now?!"

"Some kind of explosion?"

"I heard some scorpion roars."

Suddenly, all the frogs gasped at the sight they were seeing. The entire clearing was a complete wreck; the ground was torn up, covered in burn marks and corroded away, while also riddled with the squishy remains of all the killed scorpions.

"Holy…!"

"What in Frog's name just happened!?"

"Simmer down everyone, simmer down." Someone who stood out from all the surrounding frogs made his way to the front of the pack. He was noticeably larger than everyone else, mostly because he wasn't a frog at all, but a toad with light green skin. And he was dressed in a rather fancy manner compared to the homely and simple styles of all the frogs. He wore a maroon jacket with dark elbow patches and gold designs on the edges over a white undershirt. He also wore a lilac cravat, puffy dark gray pants, and brown shoes, as well as five gold rings on his fingers.

The toad took a moment to observe the surroundings, his eyes setting on Anne, Luz, and Eda in particular. "Hmm, mmm. Yep, I see. That creature Hopediah took in just caused another noisy ruckus."

"What?!" Anne exclaimed.

"Hold on, Anne didn't do anything wrong!" Luz came to her defenses. "These scorpions…"

"And it brought two more of its own kind here." The toad said. "How long until our little town is overrun by these things? Best to run em out of town before they get to that point."

In that instant, all the frogs began to get angry as it looked like a mob was about to form. Eda was quick to put the two girls behind her and more than ready to blast all the frogs into next week as a fireball formed in her hand, only for Hop Pop to appeared in front of the forming mob.

"Hold it one sec, take another look, Toadstool!" The elderly frog gestured to all the dead scorpions. "These folks just helped save my family from a pack of scorpions! There's even a queen here, showing that there was a nest nearby!"

"Hey, he's right. That is a queen." One frog said upon noticing the queen's remains. "What's left of one, anyway."

"That's right." Hop Pop confirmed. "In fact, if it weren't for these folks, these scorpions may have tried to overrun all of Wartwood. As far as I'm concerned, these creatures saved the whole town!" He saw how all the frogs were murmuring to each other, appearing to agree with Hop Pop before the old frog addressed the mayor again. "In fact, it's probably good that these scorpions were stopped here. Why, if a fight this big broke up in the middle of town, it would have cost a lot of coppers to fix it all up. And we wouldn't want big old Mayor Toadstool to empty any of his pockets, right?"

That caused the toad apparently named Toadstool, who was also the mayor of Wartwood, to grumble. "Alright, fine. So, they didn't almost cause a disaster."

"And don't ya'll worry about these critters. I'll take care of em." Hop Pop gestured to the newcomers behind him. "I already got one stray creature in my house, what's a couple more?"

"Ugh, go ahead and do what you want Plantar, but I still don't like it." Toadstool said in a groan. "Now let's clean up this mess here, folks. Scorpion parts sell pretty high, and ya know Mayor Toadstool works to get us that extra money." He said with a smile, a hand under his chin like he was advertising a campaign, leading to all the frogs to gather up as much of the scorpion parts they could.

"What was all that about?" Luz asked Anne.

"Yeah, these guys don't like outsiders all that much." She summed up. "First time I showed up here, they called me a monster."

"Well, we'd never seen a hideous and dangly creature like you before." Polly pointed out. "Or you guys for that matter." She said to Luz, Eda, and King.

Eda chuckled. "Oh little one, you ain't never seen anyone like me before."

"Or me! The king of demons! Now bow before me!" King proclaimed as he stood atop Eda's shoulder dramatically.

"Awe." Anne gushed as she pulled him into a hug. "You're so adorable!"

"I'm not adorable!" King struggled in her grip.

"And he's not the only one. Come here, you." Luz grabbed a hold of Polly.

"Whoa, what's happening here?" The tadpole questioned as the girl hugged her in a similar manner.

"Aren't you just the cutest baby frog!" Luz gushed just like her friend right now. "And that widdle bow tie… So adorable!"

"Let go of me or I'll skin you alive!" Polly protested, but it was all for naught as Luz just held her tighter, which only caused Eda to laugh before Sprig hopped in front of her.

"So, with all that out of the way… who the heck are and where did you come from?!" The pink frog boy exclaimed.

"I could ask you the same thing." The Owl Lady replied. "Cause it sure ain't the Boiling Isles."

"Sounds like we all got a lot to talk about." Hop Pop said. "So, let's over to the house and talk in a rather less… stressful environment."

---

The Plantar family home was settled on a farm, with various vegetables growing in the fields around the main housing unit, with a pond on the side. Aside from the main unit, there was a shed for tools and another building which served as the stable for the snail, Bessie. The main house was a three-story building made from stone and carved out of the stump of a large tree with moss, grass, and mushrooms all growing around the sides. There were several windows scattered at various points and a telescope coming from a window on the third floor. A red roof also hung over the main entrance and a large branch protruding out with a sign that had the letter P on it.

Currently the Plantars and their newfound guests were gathered in the kitchen around the table as Luz and Eda explained to Anne and the frog family where they came from and how they came here.

"You were living on a giant skeleton this whole time?!" Anne exclaimed in surprise. "I don't know whether I should be amazed or disgusted."

"And I haven't even seen the whole thing yet." Luz went on. "Let me tell ya the Demon Realm is something else! I still can't believe that magic actually exists! Hey, do you guys got magic here in frog-world?" She asked the frog family.

"First off, our world is called Amphibia." Hop Pop pulled out a map to show Luz, Eda, and King what looked like a continent in the shape of a giant lily pad. "Right now, you're in Wartwood." He pointed to a small spot on the map near the center. "And if you know what's good for ya, you'd best stay in this town for the next couple of months."

"Why's that?" Eda asked.

"Cause the valley we're all in is surrounded by mountains that are impenetrable this time of year." Hop Pop explained as he gestured to the mountains that surrounded the whole valley, which included Wartwood and something called 'South Toad Tower'. "I've seen frogs and toads try to cross through those mountains, none of them ever came back." He said in a dark and dramatic tone, much to the concern of Luz. "But give it a couple months, and you should be good."

"Oh." Eda said, contemplating to herself. That sounded similar to Maelstrom back at the Demon Realm, but it was probably nowhere near as deadly. Maybe she could take a look for herself and scout those mountains and see if she can get through herself, maybe clear a path for everyone else. But food for thought later.

"As for magic, yeah we heard of it." Hop Pop said.

"Really?!" Luz asked excitedly. "Can you guys do magic too?!"

"Nope. Nobody here does magic and no one's gonna try." Hop Pop answered, much to Luz's own concern.

"Why not? Magic's awesome! I mean, you saw what Eda did!" Luz said, gesturing to the aforementioned witch, who smirked with pride.

"Sure, people of that giant skeleton can use magic all willy-nilly, but legends and stories tell of dangerous creatures who use magic for their own ends." Hop Pop explained. "Including but not limited to curses. I've seen frogs be cursed before and it ain't pretty. And because of this, nobody in this family has ever used magic and no one's gonna try on my watch. You can if you want, just keep that stuff away from my family, ya hear?!" He pointed to Eda in particular.

"Alright, alright, your family, your business old man." Eda raised her hands in assurance.

"You're not the boss of me!" King hopped onto the table and pointed to Hop Pop. "Nobody commands the king of demons! I do the commanding around here!"

"Well, this is my farm, and you're a guest, so watch that attitude and learn some respect you young… creature… whatever the heck you are!" Hop Pop argued back.

"I just said I'm the king of demons! Get your ears checked old man!" King argued.

"Oooooh!" Sprig and Polly hollered while Eda snickered.

"Hey, he's not really a king of demons, is he?" Anne whispered to Luz.

"No, he's got no special powers. Just go along with it." Luz whispered back.

Anne then sighed. "Don't suppose you got any magic powers that can zap me back home, do ya?" She asked Eda.

"As a matter of fact, I can get you back." Eda revealed, much to Anne's surprise.

"Wait… seriously…?"

"Hey, yeah!" Luz finally realized it. "Eda crosses between her world and Earth all the time! She's got a magic door that can totally send us back home! How do you think I got to the Demon Realm in the first place?"

Anne gasped before rushing to the Owl Lady with an excited smile. "Oh, thank god! Please send me back!"

"Wait…. You're leaving Anne…?" Sprig asked, sounding upset, which only caused Anne to wince. Going back home would also mean leaving Sprig behind. She may not have known the frog boy for very long, but they had grown pretty close in such a short time. So much so that it made her upset to leave him.

"Hey, hey, it's not goodbye-goodbye." Luz quickly said. "The magic door that Eda's got can just let you go to Earth and back like a regular door. Even if she goes back home, she can visit whenever she wants."

"Yeah, it's really no big deal." Eda added as she rummaged through her hair.

"Oh, you're gonna come visit us?" Sprig asked as he became hopeful again with sparkles in his eyes.

"Of course, dude." Anne assured, rubbing the frog boy's head. "Just gotta let my folks know I'm okay. And I still gotta get back to find my other friends too."

"Well between the two of us, we'll find them in no time." Luz put her arm around Anne's shoulder with a smile. "Two heads are better than one after all, right Anne?"

Anne chuckled. "Oh, I missed your craziness, Luz."

"Ha, gotchya!" Eda pulled out the key to the portal door and pressed on the button that looked like an eye, the button that would normally summon and open the door. But the second she pushed it, nothing happened. She looked around and the portal did not appear. "The heck…?" She pressed it a few more times.

"Uh… Eda…?" Luz and everyone else looked concerned before Eda's own eyes widened in shock.

"Ah griffon turds, it's back at the house!" The Owl Lady groaned.

"What?!" Anne and Luz both exclaimed.

"Yeah, didn't exactly planned on getting transported to Amphibiland…" Eda began.

"You mean, Amphibia." Hop Pop corrected.

"Whatever." Eda went on. "But I must have left the portal back at my place. And this key here has something of a range. If it's too far away, the portal won't show. And since we're in a completely different land, I'd say that's well out of range. Sorry, kid." She apologized to Anne.

"Oh…" The girl looked down in disappointment. "Well, thanks anyway." Luz patted Anne's back in sympathy.

"Uh… Eda." King spoke up. "Since you can't use the portal here… wouldn't that also mean that you, me, and Luz are kinda stuck here too?"

That's when Luz and Eda's own eyes widened as it sunk into them as well, with Luz's face being one of comic panic before Eda sunk more into her chair. "Once again, griffon turds." The Owl Lady cursed again.

"Eh… maybe not." Luz tried to speak up. "We only came here because of that salamander. I bet it's still here somewhere. We find that, we find a way back to the Isles and get to the portal to get Anne back home."

"Well, that's something at least." Eda said.

Luz then gasped as something else came to her. "Oh, what about the music… Mmmph!" Her mouth was quickly covered by Anne, much to her concern.

"Hey, if it's alright with you? Can Luz and I maybe turn in? It's getting late and I want us to catch up? She can sleep in the basement with me." Anne said.

Though Eda raised her eyebrow curiously at how Anne just reacted, Hop Pop seemed fine. "Sure. I already got one extra house guest, what's a few more? But boys and girls in separate rooms! No exceptions! Now let's get you all settled in."

---

Eda and King were led upstairs to two separate rooms across from each other, one having a sign with an S on it, the other having one with a P on it and a smaller door at the bottom. Both doors were opened to reveal Sprig and Polly's rooms respectively. Sprig's was a large room with a hammock-bed on one end and a desk in the middle, along with a desk near the window and several other decorations. Polly's room was bare in comparison with only a bed and several toys.

"Now remember, boys and girls in separate rooms!" Hop Pop reminded before pulling Eda in close by her arm. "Any funny business with my grandkids and there'll be heck to pay!"

"Relax old timer, I'm not a pervert." Eda said before she and King went into the rooms as Hop Pop laid some matts out for each of them.

"Hey, you don't snore do you?" Polly asked Eda as they both sat down in their respective beds with Owlbert flying to perch himself at the window. "Or make any weird magic noises while you sleep? Cause if you wake up me up, you're a dead woman." She said dangerously as she slit her own throat, which only impressed Eda even further.

"Tough kid, aint'ya? I don't snore or make noise so you should be fine." Eda assured before turning around, her back facing Polly as she tucked herself in. When the tadpole wasn't looking, Eda reached into her hair and rummaged through before pulling out four glass containers with a yellow-orange liquid inside each of them.

'Okay, so I already drank one this morning, so I'm good for four days.' The Owl Lady thought to herself. 'Here's hoping we find that weird Palisman before then, or things are gonna get really dangerous.'

At the same time, King seemed to get settled into his matt as Sprig did the same for his hammock. "So, you're friends with one of Anne's friends, right?"

"Eh, yeah. She's a nice little servant. I just wish she'd stop hugging me all the time." King grumbled at that last part.

"And since they're friends with each other, and we're friends with them, that makes us friends too!" Sprig said before hopping over to King. "Put it there, new friend!" He stuch out his tongue, which ended up licking King's skull, much to his initial disgust before realizing something.

"A new friend…? A new friend means a new subordinate!" King then stood tall. "Very well then, Sprig the Frog. You are now under my command! Now, fluff my pillow!"

"Yes, sir!" Sprig went along with it to make his new friend as comfortable as he could, right before the little demon curled up on the pillow like a dog and proceeded to fall asleep. Sprig smiled himself before hoping back into his hammock and turning off the light with his tongue.

---

Anne had led Luz into the basement as an extra sleeping bag was laid out for her. "Okay, so there was a flood here yesterday, but Hop Pop said he got it patched up so it should be all nice and dry now." Anne said to the other girl, who had just closed the cellar door behind her.

"Anne, why didn't you have me tell them about the music box?" Luz asked, which caused Anne to wince. "Didn't you tell Sprig and his family about it?"

"You kidding? Of course not!" Anne replied, turning around to face her friend.

"But, you said they were your friends!" Luz protested.

"I've only known them for about three days." Anne explained. "Sure, Sprig's cool and all, but... it still doesn't quite feel like enough to really… open up about something like that." She said as she sat down on her sleeping bag.

"I mean, I told Eda about the box when I met her." Luz said as she sat down on the bag across from her. "She said she'd look into it and see what she can learn from it. Unless maybe you lost it…"

"No, I got it in here." Anne reached over to her backpack and pulled out the aforementioned box, the one responsible for her own current predicament, which shinned mysteriously in the light. "And I think it's busted anyway. Won't send me back home."

Luz took the box herself and opened it, looking inside as she inspected all around it before looking at the top. "Hey, wait a sec…" Luz took out her cell phone and pulled up the a picture of the box that was still in her text messages from Marcy and compared the two. "The gems…! Anne, look!" She sat next to her and showed her the picture. "When we found the box on Earth, the gems were all colored. But now look, they're all grey."

Anne looked in-between the picture and the box as well. "Huh… I actually didn't notice that…" She looked away with an embarrassed expression.

"Maybe the gems are its power source, but it's spent now." Luz guessed as she continued to look at the box. "If we get them charged up, maybe we can…" Her hand just happened to touch the gems, which caused a spark of yellow energy to appear and shock her hand. "Yow!" She waved her hand in surprises, dropping the box.

"You okay?" Anne asked in surprise.

"Yeah… probably just some static." Luz said as she flexed her own hand, neither she nor Anne noticed a faint flash of yellow in Luz's own eyes before it disappeared. "But like I was saying, if we charge up the gems, maybe we can get it working. Eda might know something about it."

"Do we have to?" Anne asked. "I mean, if she has a portal and we find that magic salamander thing you talked about, we can just go back home no problem."

"But what about Sasha and Marcy?" Luz asked as she picked up the box and looked at it deeply. "This thing is what brought you guys here. Maybe it's the key to finding them too. I… I just got this feeling that this box is important. And if it helps us find our friends then… isn't it worth it to at least ask about it? It couldn't hurt, could it?"

Anne thought for a moment and saw what Luz was trying to say. Even if she'd know the Plantars for a few days, they were nice enough to welcome her into their home and give her a safe place to sleep and even found a new friend in Sprig. Plus, they were even letting Luz stay here with her too. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to let them in. And if Eda is a witch who knows about magic, maybe she knows a thing or two about the box too.

"Alright… we'll talk to them tomorrow." Anne said, causing Luz to smile. "And we'll definitely find the others." She pulled out her BFF photo, prompting Luz to do the same. "Sasha's the toughest person we know, and there's nobody smarter than Marcy. I'm sure they're okay, wherever they are."

"Yeah… but, I'm glad I at least found you." Luz smiled with emotions again as she pulled Anne into a hug, much to her own surprise. "Just finding one of the first friends I had… after I thought I'd lose you guys…" She was sniffling. "That makes me so happy…!"

Anne smiled as she hugged Luz back. While she herself was certainly worried for all her friends, she didn't realize just how they might be feeling too, particularly Luz, who never had any friends before meeting them. She must have been really worried. But Luz was here now. And even if Sasha and Marcy weren't around to help, Anne would still protect her. She just got one of her friends back and she wasn't about to lose her again.

"Me too, Luz. Me too."

---

Meanwhile, in a dark and dank prison cell, sat none other than Sasha herself. The blonde was huddled in the corner of her cell, her right ankle restrained with the chain leading up to the wall, just as it had been for the last three days ever since arriving in this insane world.

One minute, she was with her friends back on Earth, and the next, after Anne opened up that weird box, she was suddenly in front of a large tower that looked like something from one of Marcy's dark fantasy movies. Before she could make heads or tails of what was happening, she was grabbed by a bunch of humanoid toads who tied her up and threw her in this cell where she was given a maximum of two meals a day, if you could all the grimy bug stew food anyway. And subjected to daily interrogations by these toads, specifically their leader.

Just then, the door that led into the room opened as that very leader stepped forward. This toad had pale green skin with a large and muscular build to him. He currently wore brown metal armor and a dark mauve cape. But his eyes were what stood out the most. His left eye glowed a yellowish-green and appeared to be constantly squinting, while his right one was pale blue and had a long pink scar running down it.

"Take a look at this please, Sasha." The toad spoke, revealing his serrated yellow teeth before pulling out a yellow sneaker that the blonde recognized, a shoe that belonged to one of her best friends. "It was found far from here in the south forest. Now, we know that you've been lying to us. Now we know that there are more of you."

Sasha said nothing, but only narrowed her eyes at her captor defiantly.

---

The Next Day

Anne, Eda, Luz, King, Sprig, and Polly made their way back to the farm from the clearing where they fought the scorpions, their remains already cleared out, but they made no headway in finding the salamander.

"It's a lizard that can shoot fire from its back. How can that be hard to spot?!" King complained.

"It was tiny when we found it." Luz said. "And salamanders aren't lizards, they're amphibians and…" Luz thought for a second. "It brought us here after we asked where it came from… and frogs are amphibians too… and this place has magic in it…"

"You're thinking the little guy's actually from here?" Anne wondered.

"It would make sense." Luz said.

"I can see why you think that, Kid. But it shouldn't be possible." Eda said. "Cause that thing is a Palisman."

"A pali-what now?" Sprig asked.

"You just making words up, lady?" Polly questioned.

"No, their companions for witches and demons. Owlbert here is a Palisman." Eda gestured to the owl on her shoulder.

"Oh Anne, by the way… you remember that owl that's been hanging around my house?" Luz asked the girl.

"Yeah…?" Anne replied, not sure where Luz was going with this until the girl gestured to Owlbert before the girls' own eyes widened. "No way! You've had a magic owl near your place this whole time?!"

"Yep. Right by that old house where you, me, and the others had our scare dare." Luz confirmed with a smile. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah… that's really cool." Anne smiled. 'Man, Luz is just a magnet for cool stuff. While I was stuck here in swampland, she became roommates with a badass witch. If that's not cool, then I don't know what is.'

"Anyway, Palismen aren't just companions. Their carved from Palistrom, a special type of wood grown in the demon realm." Eda explained as Owlbert remained on her shoulder. "And as far as I know, all the trees around here don't have the magic touch. So I don't really see that salamander-thing being carved here."

"Well, what about the rest of Amphibia?" Luz asked. "We've only seen Wartwood, maybe there's something outside the valley?"

"Maybe…" Eda thought for a moment before she caught an awful whiff. "Oh, ugh! King if you're gonna take a crap, use the toilet!"

"Hey that's not me! This time!" King quickly said before he and everyone else plugged their noses as they caught the horrid scent.

"Oh… what is that…?!" Luz covered her nose and mouth.

"Did something crawl under the house and die…?!" Anne questioned as well.

Sprig, however, recognized the odor and gasped in horror. "Worse guys. Much worse. Hop Pop is cooking!"

"Oh frog, no!" Polly whined.

The group was back at the house as Sprig grabbed the handle of the front door. "Brace yourselves." He warned everyone behind him.

"Brace ourselves for what…?" Luz asked, only for the door to open and everyone was knocked flat on the ground by the massive gust of the disgusting odor that shot out of the doorway. Sprig and even King were sent flying and screaming the whole way, forcing Eda to fly after them on her staff.

Once everyone regrouped and was back inside, with nose-plugs, they went into the kitchen to see Hop Pop using a cleaver to cut up some maggots and put them all into a pot, which had a sickly green liquid boiling inside and was the apparent source of the odor.

"So, what's the plan this year, Hop Pop?" Sprig asked as his grandfather took a spoon to taste what was in the pot. "Poison the competition."

Hop Pop then bonked the spoon on his grandson's head. "The plan is to win."

"Win?" Anne questioned.

"The annual village Pot Luck!" Hop Pop explained. "Every year, we frogs gather together for a great contest." He showed them various framed pictures of past Pot Lucks on the wall, where they could see several frogs winning the contest and showing off their dishes. "The family who brings the best tasting dish is showered with love and copper coins. The family with the worst tasting dish spends the night in…" Hop Pop then pointed his spoon to a window where a frog in an executioner's mask was pulling up a cage onto a tree with the word 'shame' written on it. "The shame cage!" Lightning flashed around it for dramatic purposes.

"Yikes." Eda winced. She wouldn't say it aloud, but she was put into a cage before for… an entirely different reason. Suffice to say, it was not something she'd really wish on anyone. Except maybe stalkers and certain exes who wouldn't leave her alone.

"And guess which family ends up there every year?" Sprig asked rhetorically as he, his sister, and grandfather all gave dejected sighs.

"Oh… you guys…" Luz immediately felt pity for them. Getting put in that cage must have been humiliating.

"Well not this year!" Anne declared, slamming her fist on the table. "If you think I'm gonna let my favorite froggy family end up in a cage, you got another thing coming! I know I'm not technically a Plantar, but maybe I can help."

"Maybe we can help." Luz stepped up as well. "No way I'm letting my new friends get humiliated! Eda, King, you guys in too?"

"Are you kidding?!" King crawled up on top of the table. "Winning means getting showered with love and prizes! So, let's win this thing and make a feast fit for a king! For it will be a true king who delivers it!"

"Sure, why not?" Eda shrugged with a smile.

The Plantars all smiled, their spirits picking up at the support they were getting from their house guests. "Thanks everyone, we appreciate it." Sprig said.

"So whatchya making over there, Hop Pop?" Anne looked into the pot. "Snot gumbo?"

"Before he explained it, I thought he was brewing poison." King looked into it as well.

"It definitely has the potency." Eda commented. "This would be great at getting some Coven creeps to back off."

"No, it's a traditional recipe from my family's cookbook." Hop Pop showed said book which had the words 'Ye Olde Ways' written in cursive on the cover. "We've been using this baby since I was a polliwog."

"You sure you did it right?" King questioned as he looked into the pot again. "Because this stuff doesn't even look edible."

"Hey, it might not be that bad." Luz said as she took a spoon. "You shouldn't knock it till you try it." She took a spoonful and put in her mouth. The second she tried it however, her face turned green as her cheeks bulged. Luz bolted for the nearest window and barfed so loudly that everyone, even Eda winced, before she weakly slumped back in. "There goes my breakfast… from last week."

"Yeah, we're definitely not putting out this garbage." Eda spun her finger, causing the dish inside the pot to freeze before it shattered, and it was all dumped outside.

"Here let me see that cookbook." Anne took said book from Hop Pop and skimmed through it. "Hmm, hmm mmm. I think I found your problem, guys."

The Plantars and King all gasped as they looked to Anne in bated breath before the girl closed the book with a smile.

"Old things are dumb." She said bluntly before unceremoniously dropping the book, which Hop Pop quickly caught with his tongue.

"Oh, that makes sense." Polly said.

"It's all so clear now." Sprig nodded.

"Why didn't we think about that sooner?" King wondered.

"But we Plantars have always cooked these recipes!" Hop Pop argued.

"And you used them in the Pot Luck every year?" Eda asked.

"Yep." Hop Pop confirmed.

"The same contest you lose every year?" Eda asked again.

Hop Pop grumbled, seeing where this was going. "Well, I still got loads of recipes I haven't tried! What would my great-gram-gam say?" He gestured to a portrait of his aforementioned relative who was knitting a blanket that had the words 'tradition means everything' etched into it.

"She'd say move on." Anne stated.

Hop Pop looked away with a sigh. "She was a fierce woman."

"Look guys, Anne's family owns a restaurant." Luz explained. "I've tasted the stuff they make there, and it is delicious. If there's anyone here whose an expert on food, it's her."

Anne smiled at her friend's complement before getting to business. "If we're gonna win this thing, we need something new. Something revolutionary! Something nobody in this swamp has ever seen before!" She pulled out her phone and brought up a picture of one dish in particular. "Something like… Pizza!"

"Whoa, we're making pizza!? Really?!" Luz was already excited by the idea of not just having one but making one.

"Whoa…!" Sprig looked in awe along with King and Polly, like it was the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen.

"I don't know what it is, but I love it…!" Polly said with sparkling eyes.

"So beautiful… I must have it…!" King reached for it.

"Oh yeah, I've had that before a few times." Eda recalled having some during some of her trips to Earth. "Not bad. Say what you want about humans, but they make good food."

"Pizza is not just 'good food', my dear Eda. It is the ultimate dish on Earth." Anne said with pride. "You haven't lived until you've shared one with your friends at the mall."

"Yep, nothing better than a nice slice of pizza with your friends." Luz remembered fondly when she and the other girls had pizza together at the mall or even at home. Even if she could only have one slice, or that with non-dairy cheese substitutes, due to being lactose intolerant, it was still such a fond memory for her.

"Now-now, hold on." Hop Pop spoke up. "Before we get carried away, what about this tried-and-true recipe? Swamp mold pot pie!" He opened his cookbook to show the dish. It was basically a green and greasy pie stuffed with mold and rotten bugs.

"Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!" King, Sprig, and Polly chanted.

"Sorry old man, you've been outvoted." Eda smirked.

"Okay, okay, sheesh." Hop Pop closed his book with a dissatisfied expression.

"We'll win for sure with his, Hop Pop!" Sprig showed Anne's phone that still had the image of the pizza. "Now all we gotta do is…" He took out a hammer and prepared to smash the phone to 'liberate' the dish.

"Ahem!" Anne quickly took her phone back. "All we gotta do is get four ingredients." She showed the ingredient list on her phone. "Dough, cheese, basil, and tomatoes."

"Should be easy enough." Luz said. "And with all of us working together, we'll have it all in no time! And we can put whatever toppings we want on it! So, who's ready to make our pizza dreams a reality?!"

"Pizza dreams!" King, Sprig, and Polly all chanted.

"Hey, why don't we put pineapple on it?" King asked. "Seems like a good…"

"King, no!" Luz shouted, but it was too late.

Anne grabbed King by his collar and slammed him against the wall with a rage-filled expression, like she had been told something so horrible that it made her furious just thinking about it.

"Don't you dare talk about pineapple on my pizza! Ever!" Anne threatened, while everyone, even Eda backed away in partial fright as Luz cautiously moved towards her friend.

"Okay Anne, no pineapple. King was only making a suggestion." Luz eased as she gently pulled King away. "Let's not cause a scene." She slowly inched closer to Eda.

"I just saw my life flash before my eyes." King muttered in Luz's arms.

"What's the deal?" The witch asked. "I've tried that pineapple stuff, it's not all that bad."

"Pineapple on pizza's a hit-or-miss for most people. I like it, but Anne's a big no-no." Luz answered. They looked at Anne, who eyed them like a professional assassin before Luz spoke up again. "So… ingredients for our pizza dreams?"

"Pizza dreams!" Anne hollered, her enthusiasm returning.

"Pizza dreams…" Everyone else said in a scared tone of voice.

---

The first stop on the group's trip to make their prized dish was Flour & Daughters Bakery, owned by the Flour family in Wartwood. They were already inside as they watched the owner, Mr. Flour, bring up a batch of dough on the table, covering a fly in the process, and stomp his feet on it repeatedly before getting off and putting the dough into the oven and then addressed the group.

"If you want the dough, the boy has to marry my oldest daughter, Maddie." He pointed to his daughter, who was currently in the corner of the room, her back turned to the group before slowly and creepily turning around to reveal her face.

She was a light-skinned blue frog with think pink hair tied up on her head to make her whole style look like a mushroom as it covered one eye, revealing the other to be big and yellow with a black pupil that was somewhat slit like a snake. Her attire was simple and consisted of black sack dress with brown rope for a belt. She also carried a doll that looked disturbingly like Sprig.

"Hi Sprig…" She said with a creepy smile as she slowly put a wooden stick into the doll, like she were slowly impaling him, much to the concern of everyone, particularly Sprig, while Eda looked more amused than anything else.

"Ain't she adorable?" Mr. Flour smile.

"Absolutely cute." Eda agreed.

"Uh, couldn't we just buy the dough instead?" Luz asked.

"Nope. Family recipe." Mr. Flour answered.

"Hence the marriage proposal." Luz winced.

"Done." Anne said immediately.

"Ya know, if we used a traditional recipe, we wouldn't have to sell Sprig." Hop Pop offered, showing his cook book again.

"I will not be denied my pizza just because you don't approve of your grandson's bride!" King argued before turning to the pink frog. "Sprig, as king, I hereby order you to marry that girl of face punishment!"

"Hey, it may not be so bad. Maybe we'll learn to love each other." Sprig said for the sake of optimism.

"She's right behind you." Eda said with a grin, startling Sprig in that Maddie was only a few inches behind him, smiling disturbingly at him.

"I've seen your death in my mind." She said plainly.

The pink frog laughed nervously. "I was hoping it be a surprise…"

"It will be." Maddie said with a straight-forward look, scaring Sprig even more.

"Congrats on your new son-in-law. Now fork up the dough." Anne said to the bakery owner.

"Yay!" Mr. Flour cheered in a deep voice before giving the dough to the girl.

"Pleasure doing business with ya." Anne thanked as the group proceeded to leave.

"Welp, looks like we gotta go." Sprig laughed nervously, picking up Polly in her bucket before bolting away. "See ya!

"I'm gonna be the maid of honor!" Polly stated.

"See you soon, hubby." Maddie bid farewell creepily, waving the Sprig doll's hand instead of her own.

"She might be as bad as she looks." Luz said to Sprig.

"And worst case, you can always get a divorce." Eda added as they all left.

---

Their next stop was Croaker Dairy, a dairy farm owned by one Sadie Croaker, an elderly frog with dull purple skin, white hair, and cataract in her left eye. She had a cane and wore ragged patched brown clothing, a white scarf, and black slippers.

Currently the elderly frog and Eda both watched from the side as Luz, Anne, King, and the Plantars all screamed as they were being chased by a rather large cowapillar with horns, which seemed like a mix between a giant caterpillar and a cow.

"Thanks again for helping me out!" Croaker called to them. "I know Brutis can be a handful!"

"Keep at it, kids! You're doing great!" Eda called to them. "Move those hips, old man!" She said to Hop Pop specifically.

"You're not gonna help them out?" Croaker asked the witch.

"I could corral that beast you got. Easily." Eda said. "But if I do all the work, how are they gonna learn anything? Plus, you can't beat entertainment like that." She gestured to the on-going chase.

Croaker laughed. "I like you."

Luz, Anne, Sprig, and Hop Pop ran for their lives as King rode on Luz's shoulder and Polly on Hop Pop's head. And while everyone else seemed to be terrified, Polly looked to be having the time of her life as she smiled and laughed the whole time.

"What are we here for again?!"Sprig questioned.

"To get cheese!" Luz answered.

"Ya know… there's a recipe in here... that doesn't need cheese…" Hop Pop offered his cook book again.

"No old recipes!" Anne cried out.

"Don't make me illegalize that book!" King pointed to Hop Pop.

As they ran, Luz happened to spot a bush that had rather large red leaves before an idea came to her. The girl quickly broke off from the pack and grabbed one of the leaves before making her way to the pen, opening the door and holding out the leaf like a cape.

"Hey Brutis! Over here! Toro! Toro!" She waved the leaf, which drew the attention of the cowapillar, who broke away from his chase of the others and gunned straight for Luz. "Ole!" The girl said as she pulled out of the way just in time as Brutis went into his pen and Luz quickly closed the gate before collapsing on the ground in exhaustion. "Remember kids… bullfighting is animal cruelty… and it's wrong…" Luz said aloud as everyone else joined her and Anne helped her up.

"Who were you talking to?" Anne asked.

"I… honestly don't know…" Luz sounded unsure herself.

"Here you go, kids." Croaker came to them and handed them a wheel of cheese. "A hunk of cheese, as promised. Made fresh from the milk of those…" She gestured to the pen of cowapillars behind her.

"Please don't tell me where it comes from!" Anne said quickly with a disgusted look on her face.

---

Their third ingredient was basil, with Luz, Anne, King and the Plantars each having an arm full as they ran for dear life yet again, with ten giant aphids flying after them and buzzing angrily.

However, Eda was quick to fly in herself on Owlbert and appear directly in front of the giant insects to spin a magic circle and unleash a cyclone of wind to blow away all the aphids and send them flying for at least a mile. She then flew back down as the others caught their breath.

"Thanks Eda…" Luz said in-between breaths. "Who knew aphids could be so dangerous…?"

"Should have thought of that before trying to steal their food." Hop Pop said as the others put the basil away in their bags.

"This is the price of progress, Hop Pop!" Sprig pointed to him.

"Yeah! Either get with the program or get left behind in the sands of history!" King agreed.

"So, what's left on the list?" Eda asked.

"Tomatoes…" Anne answered.

"Hey, an easy one." Luz picked up. "Let's just go back to the farm and…"

"We don't grow tomatoes." Polly said.

"Oh. Then let's just buy them from one of the other veggie farms in town." Luz suggested.

"Actually Luz, nobody in town sells them." Sprig said. "In fact, I've never even seen a tomato before."

"Seriously? Even though you got tons of veggie farms in town? Including the one you own?" Even Eda was surprised.

"There's a reason for that." Hop Pop said ominously as he pulled out his cookbook once again. "There in the 'dangerous vegetable' section. My family even has a map of where to find wild tomatoes in here so that we avoid that area." He showed said map in his book before flipping the page to reveal the picture of a tomato with a danger label below it, and a word of advice to use prunes on the next page over. "It suggests that we go for prunes instead. Can't go wrong with prunes."

"But you can't make a sauce with prunes. And sauce is the heart of the pizza!" Luz said. "Unless you want to use barbecue sauce."

"Wait, dangerous vegetables?" Anne scoffed. "Come on…"

---

The group found themselves staring wide-eyed at a bush of some large tomatoes, which was also at the base of a very large and dangerous monster. It looked like the equivalent of a hydra with a plant body and tomato-like heads with fangs. One head happened to spot a dragonfly coming in and killed it with one chomp.

"Ho..." Luz began.

"…Ly…" Sprig continued.

"…Tomato." Anne finished.

"Yeah, I think I know why your town doesn't sell them now." King winced in partial fright, especially when one of the heads lowered itself to protect all the tomatoes at the base and dared them to take even one step forward.

"Ya know, this baby's got some great substitutes." Hop Pop suggested, referring to his cookbook once again as he, King, Sprig, and Polly stepped away. "All of which are delightfully harmless."

"Yeah… a king is nothing if not open-minded…" King said nervously.

"Couldn't hurt to hear a few options…" Sprig agreed.

"Whoa, guys! Hold on!" Anne tried to stop them, only for Luz to grab her by the arm.

"Anne, maybe this might be too much." She said. "I mean, look at that thing!" She gestured to the tomato-hydra again.

"Hey, we took down a bunch of giant scorpions yesterday!" Anne pointed out.

"Yeah… but… Only cause we had to!" Luz still wasn't keen on risking the lives of King and the Plantars for this "But maybe we should look for something else… something that won't try to eat us alive…"

"Or, you just let me handle this." Eda stepped up with confidence. "You guys all pulled your weight before, I'll handle the rest."

"Wait… Eda!" Luz tried to stop her. "Not that I doubt you can beat that thing, you most probably could but… we kinda need the tomatoes… ya know… in one piece?"

"Don't worry, I can be clean." Eda flexed her hands as Owlbert continued to hang on her shoulder. "Just sit back and watch the show." She walked up to the tomato hydra casually while everyone just looked nervously. "Hey boys! You want some of this?!" Eda exposed herself. All the tomato-heads roared as they lunged themselves at Eda, leading to the group to wince before Eda quickly spun a magic circle in front of her. "Sleep spell!" She thrusted the circle at the heads, all of which quickly fell down and snored, indicating they were asleep. "That'll keep em out for an hour." She said before making her way to collect all the tomatoes.

Luz, Anne, King, Sprig, and Hop Pop all had their jaws drop and eyes widened as they saw that, except for King who didn't seem to have a jaw and just had his eyes widened, while Polly stared blankly.

"Adopt me." The tadpole said bluntly.

Eda then walked to the rest of the group, her hand up high as she carried all the large tomatoes telekinetically with her magic. "Think this will be enough for the pizza. Plus, the old guy over here can use the extras to grow his own." She handed one to Hop Pop. "Sell something that nobody else in town does, and you'll be making bank."

"Lady… you are the coolest adult I've ever met." Anne said.

"I know." Eda said proudly. "So, who's up for pizza?"

"PIZZA!" Almost everyone cheered with enthusiasm as they made their way away from the scene. "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

"Hey, why didn't use that sleep spell on the scorpions, yesterday?" Sprig asked Eda as kept walking away.

"Where's the fun in that?" Eda questioned.

However, Hop Pop was the only one who wasn't cheering and looked more disappointed than anything else, especially as he looked at his old cookbook.

---

All of the ingredients were brought back to the farm as most of the group had surrounded the table where they all laid and began their preparations.

"Okay, we got our ingredients, now we just gotta put it all together." Anne began "First up, the sauce. Poke holes in each of the tomatoes and put em in boiling water." She, Luz, King, and Sprig used knives to cut holes in all of the tomatoes and put them in a bucket of water, which Eda used to raise the temperature. The tomatoes quickly peeled before they were removed and later skinned. "Now we cut em up and mash them together before heating them back up to really melt it all into a nice sauce." Most of group proceeded to do just that, making it into a red paste before giving it to the pan that Anne had, which Eda heated up with a fire ball underneath as Anne stirred it all together. "I'll handle the sauce. Luz, you and the others flatten the dough and make it nice and round."

"Already on it!" She, Sprig, and King used their hands to try and flatten the dough.

"Hey, this is kinda fun." The pink frog said.

"Yeah, it's so nice and fluffy." The little demon added.

"Incoming!" Polly hopped onto the dough. "Rolling time!" She rolled her perfectly round body all over the dough and seemed to make it nice and flat.

"That's one way to do it." Luz laughed. "Try to get all those air pockets out Polly." She said, but turned around to see Hop Pop sitting alone at the table as he looked dejectedly at his recipe book, mindlessly flipping through the pages. Luz's expression softened as she saw him like that. "You guys keep going and follow Anne's instructions. I'll be right back."

Hop Pop happened to flip to an old recipe showing some kind of bug casserole and gave a sad sigh upon seeing it.

"Hey uh… Mr. Hop Pop?" Luz asked. "Are you feeling okay?"

"You can just call me Hop Pop." The old frog said.

"Uh sure…" Luz said before sitting down next to him. The two said nothing for a minute, even as they looked up to see everyone else having fun in making the pizza, even laughing as Eda threw some pepper into Sprig's face, resulting in him sneezing before they all laughed. "They look like they're having fun."

"Yeah, they do." Hop Pop said. "The same kind of fun I had with my family when we cooked these recipes." He began as he flipped through the pages again. "I know that kids these days don't have the same kind of tastes, but I really enjoyed the time I spent with my parents and grandparents when we cooked this stuff. Even if the dishes tasted awful, it didn't matter. All of us were together and that's what was important." He sighed again. "I guess I just wanted to use my old recipes because it felt like my folks were still here again. But it looks like what I want isn't what everyone else wants."

Luz immediately felt sympathy and empathy for the old frog next to her. She knew what that was like, spending time with your family doing stuff that even other people found weird and didn't want to do… or even doing things despite those people being gone, like it was a way for them to still be here.

"I… I think I get it…" Luz began. "Growing up, I didn't have any friends at all. All the stuff I did, and all the things I did with my family… they were things that other people thought were strange… even called me strange. Nobody really got me back home." Hop Pop looked to Luz in surprise at that. "Until I met Anne and her friends. They got me, and we did things together that we later enjoyed. I even tried new things. It's also the reason I stick around with Eda and King, they don't fit in where they're from, I don't fit in where I'm from… so we're not fitting in together. And maybe you can not fit in with us too." She offered her hand to Hop Pop, who looked to the girl with a smile.

"It's Luz, right?" He accepted her hand with his own. "I think I'm gonna like you."

"And hey… I think I know a way you can pitch in with this too." Luz gestured to the rest of their friends as Anne proceeded to spread the freshly made sauce over the flattened dough. "I said before that we can put all kinds of toppings on pizza. That includes veggies. And you're a vegetable farmer who knows these frogs and what they like. So maybe if you use that old-style knowledge, you got and applied to something new, we'd find a middle ground that suits all of us."

Hop Pop instantly perked up at that. "I think I can manage that."

After using razor-sharp wind magic to cut up the cheese into pieces, King, Sprig, and Polly had gathered all the falling shredded cheese in bowls and quickly spread it over the large, flattened dough that was now red with tomato sauce, laughing the whole way.

"And now, all we gotta do is pop it in the oven, and our pizza will be golden." Anne smiled.

"Yeah! Golden pizza!" Polly and Sprig cheered.

"Yes. Gold. Truly fit for a king." King nodded with crossed arms. "This pleases me."

"Hold on a sec kids…" Hop Pop stepped onto the scene right with Luz right behind him. "Maybe we can add a little more color to this. Like some peppers and onions, and you can never go wrong with some mushrooms."

"Wait, I thought you didn't want to make the pizza." Anne recalled.

"Eh, maybe at first… but you all seem to be having fun." Hop Pop responded. "And, you and Luz here were just trying to help the family, and that goes a long way in my book." That earned a smile from Anne too. "So, the least I can do is get in on this." He flexed his hands before pulling out a pair of knifes. "Now get me some vegetables and let us make that pizza dream a reality!"

"Pizza dreams!" Luz, Anne, King, Sprig, and Polly all cheered.

Eda chuckled with amusement. "Pizza dreams." She said contently.

After gathering an assortment of vegetables, such as peppers, onions, and mushrooms, Hop Pop used the knives with such masterful skill that made Anne very impressed, complete with a whistle, before the old frog carefully and evenly spreading all of the diced veggies across the uncooked pizza. Eda then used her magic to float the pizza directly into the oven where they proceeded to watch it cook.

After about an hour, the oven was opened, and everyone was greeted to the delicious smell.

"Ooooh… I think my nose just went to heaven…" Polly moaned.

"That smells so good…" Sprig lulled.

The pizza was brought out and put on the table, causing everyone to look with smiles. "It's beautiful…" King was nearly brought to tears. "I think I'm gonna cry…"

"Heh, not bad." Eda said proudly with hands on her hips.

"Yeah, gotta admit, that thing looks delicious." Hop Pop commented with a smile.

"I can't believe it…" Anne muttered as she and Luz looked to each other in open disbelief. "We actually made a fresh pizza…!"

"I know…. The first pizza in the history of Amphibia…" Luz muttered as well.

"We made history…" Anne said.

A bell was then heard outside which Hop Pop recognized. "Looks like the Pot Luck is starting. Let's get this thing out there and blow some minds."

---

It was late afternoon as the Pot Luck was about to begin. In addition to the Plantars and their newfound house guests, there were four other frog families who brought their own dishes. One was prepared by an elderly couple and looked like a mixture of mashed potatoes and beetles. The second, prepared by a pair of parents and their child, seemed like mashed flies. The third, made by an individual lady frog, appeared to be like a loaf of bread stuffed with cricket legs. The fourth, prepped by a pair of twins, seemed like a stack of rolled up roasted roly-polies.

Finally, the Plantars and their new friends put their freshly baked pizza on the table alongside the other dishes.

"It looks great." Anne said proudly.

"You think it's enough to win though?" Luz asked. "Nobody here has ever had pizza before."

"If we lose, it'll be criminal!" King stated. "We busted our butts making this!"

"All we can do now is hope for the best." Hop Pop said. "But we all chipped in this together, so no matter what happens, I'm proud of what we did."

"Awe, thanks Hop Pop." Sprig said with a smile.

"And hey, worst case… I can always charm the judge with a bit of magic and make them say we won." Eda suggested.

"I'll just threaten to smash them." Polly pulled out a hammer from out of nowhere.

"Hey, Hop Pop…" Anne got his attention. "Sorry if I got a little pushy before. I just wanted to share a pizza with my friends."

"It's alright. I know you were trying to help the family, and I appreciate that." Hop Pop assured as she patted Anne's arm, causing her to smile.

A trumpet was sounded, being played by Mayor Toadstool's assistant, Toadie, indicating the start of the contest, in which the mayor arrived and pushed Toadie aside.

"Alright, let the annual Pot Luck begin!" Toadstool announced. "Let's get to tasting those dishes." He poked his finger into the bug potato mix and had a taste. "Hmmm, that is scrumptious." He went over to the second dish. "Ooh, what have we here?" He tasted that as well. "Hmm, that is delicious." He said before snacking at the third dish. "Nice and fluffy with a crunchy center in the middle. Hmm." He went to the roly-polies stack and took a piece of that. "Yeah, excellent effort…" He then walked over to the last entry. "And last but not least… The Plantars and their new pets." He said with disappointment.

"Call me a pet one more time! I dare you!" King threatened, pointing to him, only for Luz to quickly pull him back.

"Ugh, what filth have you cooked up this time?" Toadstool then looked at the pizza in front of him. "Hmm, well it doesn't look vomit inducing." He took a piece and sniffed it. "It smells… pretty good actually." He then took a bite. "Hmmm, mmm."

There was a tense pause as the toad mayor seemed to be pondering the unusual taste, complete with a literal drumroll courtesy of Toadie. The Plantars, Luz, Anne, and King watched with anticipation, while Eda looked to the mayor with suspicion, ready to enchant him at a moment's notice if he tried to be an asshole about the hard work that they all put into this.

The drumroll stopped as Toadstool's face lit up. "Oh… my… frog… I can't believe my tastebuds… this… this is the most delicious thing I ever ate!"

"What?!" Hop Pop exclaimed in shock, while all the frogs gasped in shock.

"This unusual dish…" Toadstool took another piece. "It's so warm when it enters your mouth… the cheese and sauce inside are perfectly balanced with a nice crunch from this cooked dough! And these vegetables on top… they are just so cruncy and perfectly roasted…!" He swallowed another piece and gave so many delightful moans. "Just delicious! What is this culinary work of art?!"

"Pizza, baby!" Anne grinned.

"The best kind of dish you can share with your friends and family." Luz added.

"Well, I'll be sure to tell everyone that because I'm declaring this pizza dish the winning dish of this year's Pot Luck!" Toadstool announced as he took out a blue ribbon with the number 1 in the middle. "Congratulations Plantars, for finally winning something, as unbelievable as it is." He handed it to Hop Pop, who took it with shaky hands as he and his grandchildren looked in disbelief.

"W-we did it…? We actually won…?" Sprig stuttered.

"I'm looking at it, I'm hearing it, and I don't believe it." Polly said plainly.

Hop Pop's face was filled with emotions, complete with his own eyes watering as he smiled. "Yeah kids, we won."

"WE WON!" Sprig, Polly, and King all hollered as they stood up on the table. Anne and Luz both shared a high five with one another, with Eda giving a smile and a nod.

King took the ribbon in his hands and held it up high. "That's right! Bow before the new king of the Pot Luck!"

"And if you wanna get a taste of this dish yourself, you can buy the recipe from yours truly." Eda pulled out a piece of paper that had all the prep instructions on it and announced it to all the surrounding frogs. "So, what's my opening bid?! Come on people! Who wants to make their own tasty pizza!?"

"I'll give you ten copper coins for it!" One frog offered before he was shoved out of the way by another.

"I'll give you fifteen!"

"Twenty!"

The entire crowd of frogs offered up as many coppers as they could to the Owl Lady, who only smirked. 'Yep, I think I'm gonna like this place.'

"Of course." Luz rolled her eyes playfully at Eda's antics.

"So, how's it feel to win, HP?" Anne asked as she went over to the old frog.

"It feels great! Thanks for all your help, Anne. Luz, you to. Maybe this old frog can learn a thing or two about what's new." Hop Pop said.

Anne smiled at that before looking to Luz, who had a hopeful and encouraging smile of her own. Anne could tell right away what Luz was thinking and nodded to her. "Alright, let's back to the house. There's something I wanna show you guys."

As the group made their way from the scene, along with Eda who carried a large back of copper coins over her shoulder, Luz happened to turn around and spot the losers of the Pot Luck, the frog family with the mashed flies, step into the shame cage, which was then hoisted up. While Luz was glad that she and her friends won, she felt bad for the frogs who lost, especially since their was a frog-kid in there.

"Ah well, there's always next year." The frog dad said as he and his wife seemed acceptant of their defeat, but the little frog boy sniffled, upset that he and his family lost and were now sitting in this cage.

That is until a plate of pizza was handed up to him. The boy looked to see Luz reaching up as high as she could, with the boy grabbing it before she winked at him with a smile and left.

The boy looked at the pizza curiously before turning in the direction the human girl went in and smiled, right before taking a bite and offering the rest to his parents.

---

Later that night, the Plantars, Luz, Anne, King, and Eda (with Owlbert on her shoulder) had all gathered around the table in the kitchen as Anne pulled out her backpack.

"Okay… I was a little unsure about this, but Luz thinks it might be a good idea to show all of this to you…" Anne seemed more than a little nervous, so much so that she couldn't even open up her backpack all the way. That is until Luz gently put a hand on her shoulder, giving Anne a comforting smile, which caused Anne to smile back before fully unzipping the backpack, reaching inside, and pulling out none other than the music box for all of them to see.

"Wow… shiny…" Sprig looked with large eyes, with even King unable to take his eyes off that.

"Whoa…" Hop Pop muttered with Polly's mouth opening slightly.

"Is that…?" Eda began.

"Yeah, that's the music box I told you about, Eda." Luz said.

"It's how I got here… me and the rest of my friends." Anne added. "One minute we were on Earth… and when I opened it…"

"Zap!" Luz exclaimed dramatically. "She, Sasha, and Marcy were all gone! Without a trace!"

"Hoot!" Owlbert confirmed it for Eda. This was the very same box he saw the girls open.

"What about the rest of your friends?" King asked.

"I don't know." Anne confessed. "When I came to, I was smack dab in the middle of this swamp. Sasha and Marcy were nowhere to be seen. I got no idea where they are."

Eda took a moment to look at the box. "Well, Eda?" Luz asked as the Owl Lady inspected the box, opening it up to look inside. "

Nope, still don't recognize it. But… these gems kinda look different." Eda took notice of the gray gems.

"They were colored before." Luz said as she pulled up a picture of the music box on her phone, one that had the colored gems on it and showed it to Eda and the others. "So I'm thinking those gems are the power source. Maybe if we charge it up…"

"Except I got no clue what kind of magic powers it." Eda said.

"Seriously?" Anne asked. "You can't just wave your finger and cast a spell on it for magic fuel?"

"It's not the same as when you humans take those vehicles you ride in to those stations with liquid fossils." Eda explained. "In the Isles, magic tools need a specific type to magic to make it run properly. If this thing works in the same way, we'd need to know exactly what type of magic makes it runs, or it won't work the way we want it to."

"Oh… yeah, I guess that makes sense." Luz said, looking away.

"May I?" Hop Pop asked, to which Eda handed him the box as he too inspected it. "Hmm. Hmmm. Hmmm." He even opened the box to look inside himself. "Nope." He said before closing it. "Never seen anything like it either."

"Well, it was worth a shot." Anne looked down in disappointment.

"Really?" King asked. "I mean you can use Eda's portal door to go back home, right?"

"Which is still stuck at the house until we find that sneaky little salamander." Eda reminded.

"Oh. Right." The little demon remembered.

"Even if Anne and I can still get home with the portal, this box might help us to find Sasha and Marcy." Luz said. "They're still out there and we have no idea where to find them."

"But we will." Sprig quickly said as he hoped onto the table to face the girls. "Anne, Luz, I promise… we'll find a way to get you guys back home and find all your friends."

"Yep." Eda said with her own smile. "I already told you I was gonna help you kiddo, and I never do anything half-way. We'll find your friends. And it looks like we're all doing it together."

"Thanks guys." Anne smiled.

"Yeah… we're in this together." Luz smiled as well.

Hop Pop then gave a rather loud yawn. "Well, that's enough excitement for me today. I think I'm gonna turn in. Goodnight, kids."

"Goodnight."

"Night Hop Pop."

Those were the goodnights of all the kids as they watched Hop Pop go up the stairs. All except Eda who looked in the direction of the old frog with a suspicious expression.

---

In the middle of the night, when everyone else was asleep, Hop Pop had crept his way down from his room to his own personal study. After lighting a single candle, he got out a certain book, one that has been in his family for generations, and began to look through the pages before finding something that made him gasp and look with a deathly serious expression.

"It's just as I feared."

The pages in his book had an illustration of the music box, as well as three glowing stones, and a frog's skull on it. It had the words 'Calamity Box' and 'Danger' written in big bold red letters.

"The Calamity Box…" Hop Pop said to himself. "…We'll hold onto it for now… but if this brings danger to this household…" He happened to glance at his candle, specifically at the flame. As he stared into it, he heard the sounds of screams as well as bird calls, even seeing the silhouette of a giant, long-legged and long-beaked, bird at the center of the flames before it roared in his direction.

The elderly frog gasped as he snapped himself out of that trance. "Not again… I won't let it happen again…" He muttered as he put his own hands on his head.

However, unbeknownst to him, Owlbert was perched on the branch of a tree just outside the window, having seen and heared everything.

The Palisman then flew from his spot and toward the partially open window that led into Polly's room. It flew inside before coming onto Eda's shoulder, who was wide awake while the little tadpole was fast asleep in her bucket.

"Hoot." Owlbert whispered into Eda's ear.

"You sure?" She whispered back.

"Hoot." Owlbert confirmed.

"I knew it… I knew he was hiding something." Being forced to take care of herself for so long, Eda developed something of a talent for sniffing out deception and lies, if only to avoid being drawn into traps that could spell her doom. And the second Hop Pop said he didn't see anything like the music box before, Eda could tell that he was lying. It seemed he knew something about that box, and that it was apparently way more dangerous than she thought.

"Hoot?" Owlbert asked if they should tell the others.

"No, not yet." Eda replied. "We don't know anything about that box either. Luz and her friend will probably be holding onto it for now. We'll do some research and find out what we can, and we'll work our way from there. But let's keep this to ourselves for right now."

"Hoot." Owlbert nodded in understanding before Eda laid back down on her sleeping bag.

"Calamity Box, huh…?" The Owl Lady said to herself before sighing. "Just what have you gotten yourself into this time, Edalyn?"

---

Newtopia – The Next Morning

The capital of Amphibia was a thing of beauty. A large and bustling metropolis primarily occupied by newts, who were considered high rank in the society of this world. All of these newts went about their daily lives in this grand metropolis.

That included the current king and ruler of this land. The mighty King Andrias, who may as well be the largest sentient individual in this world, probably around twenty feet tall. Andrias was a blue-skinned newt with a stocky and muscular body, which included his tail. He had yellow eyes, long white hair and a beard. Currently, his attire, aside from his crown that he wore all the time, was that of a casual morning robe, slippers, and a pair of pinkish glasses as he sat in his throne, reading the newspaper with a cup of tea in his hands, the mug having the phrase '#1 Monarch' written on it.

The sounds of a chipper laugh drew his attention to the entrance of his throne room as two certain individuals quickly entered.

"Come on, Lady Oliva! There's a whole castle for me to explore!"

One of the individuals was Olivia, Andreas' royal adviser. She was an aquamarine newt with long navy blue hair tied in a bun with a shell band. She was currently dressed in a purple and yellow taffeta dress with scale-like designs stitched into a pattern, along with white gloves and a golden broach.

The advisor appeared to be out of breath as she struggled to keep up with the other individual who really caught Andrias' attention. A certain human girl with her left leg wrapped up in a cast as she had a crutch to support herself.

The human's excitement turned into pure awe as she saw the enormous newt who was the king of Amphibia. Andreas himself looked in just as much awe as he took off the glasses, he was wearing to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

A human… He had heard from his advisors that a strange and unusual creature had suddenly appeared in the middle of Newtopia. But a human…? And even if this one was a different species than that of witches… this one had a body structure that reminded him so much of… her.

"King Andrias…" Olivia began to announce as she and Marcy stepped closer to the surprised king while Oliva bowed fancily. "I present to you the creature known as Marcy Wu. She claims her species is a 'human' and hails from the world she refers to as 'Earth'."

"So, you're the king of Newtopia…?" Marcy looked at him, still in awe. "Man, you're huge! Andreas, huh? Can I call you 'Dreas'?"

That really stirred up something in the giant newt king. "Only three people have ever called me that." He said with a sad expression as he looked at his glasses.

"Oh! Gotcha. Too personal. Boundaries, Marcy." She chastised herself before a fun idea came to her. "You know, I bet I can fit in your pocket!"

"What?!" Olivia questioned in a cold sweat.

"Huh…?" Andreas didn't even have time to process as Marcy began to climb up onto his body, despite her broken leg.

"Up, here we go…" She climbed up onto his left shoulder. "Supy-daisy…" She let herself slide right into his front pocket and fit in almost perfectly. "Knew it." She said with a satisfied grin. "Oh, I just thought of something." She took out a pin from her own pocket, one that had the face of the Good Witch Azura and pinned it right onto his collar. It was so tiny compared to him. "A little gift from the King of Newtopia. I hope you like it." She said with a smile and cute sparkles in her eyes.

Olivia's face shrunk in a cold sweat. This was definitely not proper protocol.

Andreas however, laughed in amusement, almost shaking Marcy out of his pocket before he gently picked her up and put her in the palm of his hand. "Indeed I do, little Master Marcy."

"Master? I'm a master?!" She beamed with excitement. "OMG! Luz, Anne, and Sasha will never believe this! Well, maybe Luz might…" Marcy pondered with a walk and almost slipped out of Andrias palm, but he was quick to catch her by her hood. "Speaking of my friends, have you seen them? I need to make sure they're okay."

"We haven't, but we are looking." Andreas answered as he set Marcy down next to Olivia and handed her back her crutch. "In the meantime, you'll be our honored guest here. Lady Olivia will show you to your quarters." He turned her in the direction that led out of his throne room.

"This way, Master Marcy." Olivia led the girl away.

"Okie-doke, by King Andrias." Marcy waved as she was led outside.

When they were gone, the king of Newtopia looked to the Azura pin that Marcy had put onto his collar. It was pretty cute. That girl was certainly charming, so much so that he actually developed an instant liking towards her.

Suddenly, a series of orange eyes appeared on Andrias' crown as the king felt his mind being pulled away as he now found himself in a black void, which was quickly illuminated as the eyes shined out in front of him. These eyes belonged to his lord and master, the true and secret ruler of Amphibia.

The Core.

"A human, Andrias! A human has appeared in our world!" The entity spoke, like an amalgamation of different voices all speaking at once.

"Eh yes… the native species of Earth…" Andrias said.

"Which would mean… the music box has returned to our world!"

"It would appear so." Andrias commented.

"Our legacy… returned to us… At last. Andrias, you must kill the human! Immediately!" The Core ordered.

"What…?" He looked in shock and surprise. "But, we still don't know where the box is. It wasn't transported with her."

"Keeping her alive is a risk!" The Core bellowed, causing Andrias to wince as the eyes moved all around the black void. "The Olm's prophecy foretells of three champions who would stand against us! Who could harness the power of the stones! We've been fortunate in that those of the Demon Realm cannot reach us through the dimensional rifts, nor we can reach them. But if those humans encounter the demons, they could form an alliance against us. Their powers could undo the rifts and close in to destroy us!"

"It is true that keeping her alive has its risk… but the prophecy says there are three warriors, but according to her, there are potentially four humans here." Andrias replied. "And she is but a child. Perhaps she was pulled here by accident alongside the three warriors, and she has no connection to the stones at all. Maybe all of this is... overblown."

The Core was silent for a few seconds, contemplating what its slave had just said. "That is true. There are too many unknowns. What do you propose, then?"

"What do… I propose…?" Andrias repeated the question, walking forward slightly as ancient writings appeared before him in the void, like he had summoned them himself. "In studying the ancient writings, it appears there is a ritual that allows these… chosen heroes… to give up their abilities and the responsibility that comes with them." He explained as the Core's eyes appeared below his feet, listening to him closely. "Why not befriend this Marcy and lure the other humans here? We'd have a better chance at knowing just which human has the stones' powers if they're all gathered together, right? And if we befriend them all, we'd be able to help them in 'relieve' them of their burdens. We'd restore the powers of the box, neutralize the prophecy, and maybe even overcome the rifts and resume our conquest of the Demon Realm after a thousand years of waiting…"

A hand touched his shoulder. "And restore our legacy, all in one fell swoop." Andreas turned around with an uncomfortable expression at the appearance of his father, Aldrich, whose face contained the eyes of the Core. "Well done, Andreas."

A series of mechanical tentacles appeared out of the darkness and dragged Aldrich back into it as the former king snickered evilly. The minute he was gone, Andreas found himself back in his throne room.

He gently removed the Azura pin from his robe and looked at it with a sad expression. He may not want to do it… but he had to. He had to redeem himself. He couldn't let himself get attached and distracted by a potential friendship like last time. He made that mistake before, in opening his heart to others… but not now. Not again. Not ever.

Done.

Well, how was that for an arc premier?

Luz, Eda, and King have been transported to Amphibia, where they meet the Plantars, and Luz reunites with Anne. Not only did they have an epic battle against some dangerous giant scorpions, but even had a nice bonding moment making some pizza and winning the Pot Luck this time around.

Let me say something really quick though before we get into the author's notes. I'm more than aware that most of Amphibia's episodes are half as long as those in the Owl House (two segments per episode), so most of them I'll be writing together into a single chapter. I'll expand on a few and make them a bit longer than in canon, and I'll even mix up some of the order (particularly those in Season 1) so that they better fit in with the guideline I've written for this story. I hope that makes sense.

I bet you weren't expecting those two to meet up again so soon, eh? Well, that's what I've been wanting to write since I thought about this story. Unlike what other writers have done, or what many of you had thought, Luz and Anne are going to be going on their adventures together through both the Boiling Isles and Amphibia. And they are not alone. Eda, King, Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly will be joining them.

It'll actually be good for both Luz and Anne if they're together as it will help them both to grow as they become close to one another. Since the start of this story, while the two could safely and comfortably call each other friends, they weren't particularly close, not in the way Luz was with Marcy or Anne with Sasha, so this gives them a chance to do just that. They not only grow with each other, but the new friends they'll make in their respective worlds as they manage to go back and forth between Amphibia and he Boiling Isles (once they find that salamander of course).

Case in point, Luz's presence has made Anne comfortable enough to show the music box to the Plantars earlier than in canon. And just like canon, Hop Pop claims ignorance, but knows that it's a dangerous relic. (And Eda knows he was lying about it. You'll see how that goes later on)

The salamander is an original idea I came up with, a very unique Palisman that has the ability to transport people from the Isles to Amphibia and vice-versa. So once the group finds it, they'll use it to go to the Isles and have all kinds of adventures there. And maybe even bring some other witches to Amphibia and other frogs to the Isles as well.

Another reason why I am bringing Luz and Anne together this soon is because I want Eda and King to interact with the Plantars as that is a dynamic that really want to write. They're going to have bumps in the road for sure, but you can expect them all to learn and grow from one another as well.

Now, I'm sure many of you are probably wondering about the portal door since Anne apparently has a possible way to go home through that. All I can say is that you will see what happens soon when we get to that point. Our group of frogs, witches, and humans will soon find that things aren't going to be so simple for them. But they'll face it all together.

Of course, we got to see what's become of the other girls. Much like in canon, Sasha is being held prisoner by the frogs, and Marcy is in Newtopia…

Under the watchful gaze of our other major antagonists, Andrias and the Core.

And yes, I do plan on expanding a bit on what's going to go on with those two during the Season 1 saga. There will be a few semi-original chapters with both of them (and yes, I've read Marcy's Journal, so it's given me quite a bit to work with).

Also, I'm going to say this right now, Luz is not connected to the Calamity Stones, nor is she in the Olm's prophecy and won't have any Calamity powers in this story. If she did, that would defeat the purpose of Eda's wisdom in we cannot wait for a prophecy to make us special, so we have to choose our own paths ourselves. But that's not to say Luz doesn't hold importance. She most certainly does. After all, the prophecy makes no mention of any Titans… and something did happen to Luz when she touched the box again. So maybe we'll see something there. Hint, hint.

Anyway, our journey has begun, and I can't wait to write it. I hope you guys enjoy what I have to offer.

Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there.