Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"How's the arm feeling, Anne?"

"Just a little hitchy… and that's all I'm feeling. Don't worry about it, HP," Anne replied. Hop-Pop glanced back, momentarily trusting Bessie with handling the road as he eyed her thoughtfully.

Anne felt a sweat come down her forehead, but she managed to at least feign a neutral expression, picking her phone and starting to fiddle with it, refusing to cross Hop-Pop's gaze. It seemed to work, as he let out a sceptical 'hmm' but didn't insist further, turning his focus back to the road.

"All right then, but don't you hesitate if you start feeling anything weird. You just got out of your cast, Anne, so you shouldn't really overestimate the state of your arm," Hop Pop said. He raised a finger, recalling another point. "Besides, your contribution to the farm has been sorely lacking since you got hurt. You ain't getting hurt again just to skip manual work even longer!"

"Pff, sorry for getting clubbed down by a toad…" Anne grumbled to herself. She checked her arm, and saw that it looked perfectly fine, as if it was completely new. The look devoid of any visible injuries felt almost mocking, considering how painful it still felt to move the joints around, and how hard it was to force herself not to wince everytime she made a move too sudden or fast. It wasn't crippling by any means, but it sure was annoying! She was trying her best to push through it, though.

No way she was going to spend a day longer locked in the Plantar abode. She needed fresh air!

"He's just worried, Anne," Sprig said, attempting to comfort her as it was clear by Anne's frown that she was not appreciating Hop-Pop's continuous requests to update her arm-health status. The little frog sat on the chair over Bessie's shell, beside Anne and with Polly sitting on his lap, while Hop-Pop was found over the saddle, handling the driving. "Well… we're kind of worried, too, you know."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get fed up with having to deal with double the work around the farm, and I'm even legless! Your time to beat around the bush ends today, girl!" Polly growled.

Sprig raised an eyebrow at Polly.

"What? It's not like it's not true."

"We lived without Anne for years, Polly, and we were fine work-wise."

"That's changing the subject!"

"It's not!"

"It's—oh, just forget about it. I still hope you are going to be okay, Anne… regardless of my reasons," Polly muttered to herself. Anne couldn't help smiling at her pout.

That smile disappeared after Polly's next observation, though, which was whispered low enough that Hop-Pop couldn't overhear them. "I mean, you might be able to hide it from Hop-Pop's poor sight, but me? Or even Sprig here? Don't think we haven't noticed you look on the verge of exploding everytime something brushes off your arm!"

"I-I know, I know," Anne whispered back, picking up Polly to pull her closer, "But I'm sick to go around in a cast, I really am. Do you know how boring that is?! It was fun at first when I had people sign it and stuff, but after a while… I realized I couldn't actually do anything; I couldn't even play with my phone properly! And watching movies and TV series gets old fast if it ends up being your only way to pass the time and you don't have an internet connection to get fresh new media!"

"Well, I can understand that… except the 'internet' thing part," Sprig mused, getting closer as well. "But still, I think you should stay put with that arm, Anne. Seriously… you got hit pretty hard."

"Ugh, I know, but you gotta understand me here! If I have to go another week contained within the farmhouse, I'm gonna lose my mind! So, help me with that and don't say a thing, all right?"

"Well, I can admire the spirit to push through the pain at the very least. It takes guts!" Satisfied enough with Anne's replies, Polly hopped out of Anne's hands, this time landing over Sprig's hat. Said frog looked a bit more doubtful than her, as he kept eyeing Anne.

"If that's makes you feel better, I'll do it, Anne. But, uh… just don't try to push yourself too far with that arm, still. You don't want to reset every bit of progress you've made up until today… that would be kind of bad."

"Ehh… thank you for your support… and for probably jinxing it, but okay," Anne said with a half-joking, half-sarcastic tone.

"Jinxing it? What are you talking about? This is just stating the facts, Anne. Now, if you really wanted some good spell for pure misfortune to bring to your interlocutor, and just by words, in Amphibia we usually—"

Anne agitated both of her hands out in a 'no' sign, before remembering one of them was still sore and retreating it once a pain burst reminded her of it. "N-no, no, I think I'm good with what I already know about bad luck, Sprig."

As much as she disliked admitting it, Anne knew her friends had a point—she still had a few days to go back to 100% in terms of how her arm felt. The injury had been serious enough to warrant a cast, after all, so she expected the thing to take a while longer. Taking off the cast was still a big achievement though, and she looked forward to at least being functional again with two fore limbs rather than just one. Maybe punching large arthropods was still out of the questions, but at least she could help with groceries.

Not the most exciting of actives, but it was something!

The short trip to Wartwood didn't take long, and soon Hop-Pop led Bessie into the central plaza of the town. After parking the snail nearby the large grocery shop, he descended from the Snail's back, followed by Sprig, Polly and Anne.

"Okay kids, I'm going to pass by Loggle's to get materials for the house, we really need to fix some of those holes in the framework of the walls," Hop-Pop noted. "I can handle Loggle on my own, but we also have to pay a visit at the shop for some kitchen supplies the farm can't produce for us, and I'll need you to help me with the groceries. So, you want to do it first or—"

"Later!" the three kids responded at the same time.

"…of course." Hop-Pop replied, not very surprised by the answer he got. "Well, I'll be off to the wood workshop then. But once I'm back, I'll need you to be ready! Especially you Sprig. With Anne still being fresh out of that cast and Polly not being tall enough yet to actually handle them bags, you'll have to take the brunt of the shopping-bag-carrying work."

Sprig saluted, military-style. "You can count of me, Hop-Pop."

Hop-Pop nodded and whirled around, as Sprig quickly added with a whisper. "As long as the other two here don't have an excuse to skip work, that is."

"Hey, at least you get to do something simple enough. Besides, he always made me carry everything before the accident," Anne noted. "It's almost like you all think I got super-strength or something. I might be tall, but I'm not bulky, you know!"

"You did kind of fend off a giant red mantis on your own," Polly noted.

"Yeah, that was good," Anne reminisced with a smile, before realizing she was trailing off. "No, no, that was another thing. There was adrenaline involved!"

Polly giggled, but Spring simply shrugged. "Let's just check the town and see if there's something worthwhile to do while Hop-Pop is busy talking with Loggle."

They narrowed their eyes and looked around—

Immediately noticing a crowd of citizen being gathered on the side of the central square that led to Wartwood's main entrance

"Well, here's our ticket away from boredom!" Anne professed, being the first one to start walking immediately in that direction. Sprig and Polly followed suit by walking and hopping respectively, equally as interested by whatever had taken the attention of the Wartwoodians.

Some of which the three kids actually knew, as it soon turned out.

"Hey, Ivy!" Sprig exclaimed upon noticing the beret of his crush—ahem, friend, among the taller frogs.

"Hey-ho, Sprig!" Ivy turned around and waved at them. "Come on, come on! I heard a merchant from Lily Paddington just got in town. He's showing the goods right now!"

"Wait, Lily Paddington?!" Sprig's eyes grew wide. "Wow, we gotta check this out. We almost never get visitors from other towns in the Valley!"

Anne was only somewhat interested though. She glanced at Polly, who also didn't seem to share as much interest in the foreigner merchant. "What's about Lily Paddington that's so special?" she wondered.

"Oh, it's not about Lily Paddington itself," Polly explained. "It's just that frogs rarely travel through the Valley to visit the towns beyond the one they came from. We usually just stick to our business in our towns and that's it. Seeing someone come by from another town is quite a big event for that reason, especially if it's a merchant that brings something new on the table."

She shrugged. "Unless it's an armour & weapons seller, I'm not really interested, though. Besides, I heard a lot of people in Lily Paddington are toads, and toad traders are always big pushovers—because it's all toads who don't get to be warriors or mayors! If it's a toad merchant, I'm out."

"Hey! We toads got an impressive trading tradition of our own, young lady," Mayor Toadstool was also among the crowd and had apparently managed to catch Polly's comment, looking at her for a moment to chide her. "So, try understanding the culture before judging, Plantar!"

Polly was not impressed. "If that 'culture' works similarly to how his government does… I'm not really changing my ideas," she stated flatly once Toadstool returned his attention back to the crowd and the merchant they were hiding.

"Oh, well," Anne picked Polly up to give her a better view among the crowd. "We might as well check it out. Who knows, maybe Toadstool's got a point… as weird as it sounds to say so."

Polly grunted with a nod, showing that she still didn't think it was worth it, but was at least willing to follow her. Sprig had already disappeared among the frogs, pulled into the crowd by Ivy, but Anne was taller than most frogs so it was relatively easy for her to surf through the gathering of frog citizen, getting closer to the cause of attention.

Eventually, they managed to get a look at the stranger who had come to Wartwood. A large toad stood in front of the crowd, and as soon as Anne saw him, she was immediately reminded of Toadstool's behaviour. Which she believed was a big plus, when the alternative was looking and acting like the Toad Tower toads.

Unlike the tax collectors she was unfortunate enough to meet, this fellow seemed to know his manners well enough to appear cultured. He also wore an elegant merchant dress coloured with a bright purple, complete with a similarly coloured hat that somewhat reminded her of a turban. He was currently busy describing his wares to the interested frogs that were observing him. A pair of snails was right behind him, and Anne could see that both had large bags and smaller pouches attached to the sides of their shells, filled to the brim with mysterious contents. One of those bags in fact was open, and Anne imagined that one of the things that were found in it was the object that the toad merchant was holding in his hand right now.

"Directly from Toad Tower, new cutting knives, for all of your knife-ty needs! These are a rare commodity, folks, so I advise you secure your chance at one once I open the stand at the market here in Wartwood. They were designed by a new genius innovator that now resides in the tower home to our benefactors, so they are worth the price! No more almost losing a finger in the kitchen—now you'll still risk losing a finger but at least you'll actually manage to cut the carapace down!"

"Well, that sounds nice, but I'm not sure… can they cut through wood?" One-Eyed Wally questioned.

The toad looked at the peculiar Wartwood citizen with a sufficient gaze. "I guess they do. But why wasting your valuable time, and money, on using these effective knives on wood, when you can put them to their best use in the kitchen? They can handle vegetables and bugs alike!"

"Heh, maybe Hop-Pop would like one of these," Anne commented. "I certainly would like one, since it seems like everytime I try to get in the kitchen, something we're supposed to eat later in the day attacks me!"

"I doubt it. I'm pretty sure he's developed an affection for our old machete."

"Wait, that knife is a machete!?"

Meanwhile, One-Eyed Wally didn't flinch at the reply of the merchant. "That means you assume I don't need to cut wood in my kitchen!"

The toad was incredulous as the crowd of frogs murmured lowly, as if Wally had just managed to reveal the catch in the impossibly good offer. He groaned. "Tough crowd, heh? Well, let's just move on to something else then. Lily Paddington may be closer to Toad Tower than other towns, but that doesn't mean it hasn't got any local products to make you change skin colour with envy."

He started going through the same opened bag on one of the snails he had opened earlier, still facing the crowd. "For instance, may you be interested in—"

The words died in his throat as his eyes fell on a certain someone. It only occurred now to him that one of the frogs was taller than the rest, even taller than the mayor toad himself!

And it wasn't just tall… oh, no. It was lanky and thin, with a weird lump on its face, a mouth too small to be natural…

The toad shrieked with horror. "Newts in a blender! Another ALIEN!?"

Now, Anne didn't really miss being called names by people, with undesirable titles such as 'scarecrow' and others, solely because of how she looked. She probably should've expected such a reaction from the stranger though, since they weren't from Wartwood, but still… it still somewhat annoyed her.

The Wartwood people didn't immediately seem to be particularly interested in coming to her aid or defending her as well. However, their reaction was not the opposite either, as they all looked rather confused and puzzled by the sudden yell. Sprig and Ivy were scratching their heads, befuddled, while Polly shook her head, somewhat disappointed by the exhibition of fear.

However, Anne believed she didn't need their help in this predicament. She knew exactly what the toad merchant meant by calling her out!

"Now, you listen to me, mister," she hissed, stepping forward through the crowd to get closer, Polly still in her hands, "I've spent way too long here while people kept treating me like some kind of monster, and I gotta say, being called an alien is something new even for me. But I won't just stand and let you call me an ugly alien or whatever you want, okay?! And another alien, even?! As if you're already met some sort of 'hideous beast' that looked like me and just immediately assumed I was the same as whatever blood-thirsty creature… you… met… back from where… y-you…"

…

"…came."

Polly was sure she heard a click coming somewhere from Anne's head. A moment later, she was rolling on the ground, the hands holding her gone as Anne had rushed to the startled toad merchant.

"What alien?! WHAT ALIEN?!" she screamed in his face.

"Eeek! You're even uglier up close! Get away from me! Get this thing off me!" the toad merchant tried to push Anne away, but the girl's grip on his shoulder was overwhelming even for a large toad such as him at first, his strength partially denied by his fear.

"Wait, Anne, what are you doing? Anne!" Sprig shouted, having followed her to the merchant, followed by an even more confused Ivy.

But Anne didn't listen, shaking the poor merchant back and forth. "Who was that alien? What was their name? Her name?! Tell me, NOW!"

"Oh frog, she's snapped! Quick Ivy, help me try to get her off the toad before she goes back to her beastly instincts and tries to eat him!" Sprig grabbed Anne's arm and tried to pry her away with little initial success. Ivy took a few seconds of indecision before she finally shrugged, then joined him.

With their combined their effort, they took Anne's attention away enough to let the merchant free himself from her grasp. He staggered away, dusting himself off while wearing a half-disgruntled, half-frightened expression.

"Anne, what's gotten into you? Stop pulling, come on!" Sprig kept talking as he and Ivy tried their best to keep Anne in check. The girl kept trying to free herself from the two frog kids, though.

"I'm not—I'm not gonna leave this guy alone until he tells me what he saw, who he saw! He said he saw an alien like me! Like me, he said! H-he might have met Sasha! Or Marcy! I can't let him go—let me go talk with him!"

"You can ask him, Anne, but try to be a bit calmer about it! It's not like that merchant is going to turn around and disappear now that we're looking away and—and he's going," he said while realizing that said merchant had indeed started running for his life, abandoning his snails and bags to the elements.

His path was however blocked by a certain tadpole, who, despite her size, was easily able to intimidate the toad into submission. "Now, now, where do you think you are going, good sir? That's a bit rude of you."

"I-I'm getting out of here! That thing is scaring the wits out of me, and it's also no good for my business to let myself be watched while that alien is around keeping me on the edge!" the merchant replied, glancing at the nearby townsfolk, who were starting to disperse with disinterest. How these people were not disgusted by that lanky, noodle-armed creature was beyond him.

"Now, now, mister merchant… Anne here was just a little bit taken aback by your, err… sudden comment, that's all," Sprig tried to mediate from the distance. The merchant turned back to look at him, gulping at the sight of Anne's wide, almost furious eyes scanning him from head to toe. Though at least, she was no more actively trying to get out of Ivy and Sprig's grasp now.

"We can just stay here… calm and silent and patient, like civilized people… very civilized!" he eyed at Anne, who scoffed with a hiss at his comment. "And have a short talk, honest frog-to-toad. How does that sound?"

The toad didn't look forward to it, but considering the beast itching to free itself to lunge at him again at the slightest mistake, and the frightening tadpole who was still blocking his escape, it didn't look like he had a say in the matter.

"Ugh, all right, all right, you guys win. I'll talk, but you will leave me alone afterwards!" he conceded with a groan.

"That's better now, is it? Diplomacy wins again!" Sprig struck a winning pose. The merchant raised an eyebrow at him.

"Diplomacy? Whew, that is my cue to leave then," Ivy said, whirling around. "See you later, Sprig!"

"W-wait, what?! Ivy, wait!" Sprig went after her. "Diplomacy can be exciting as well!"

The merchant felt his air transpiration system go into overdrive as he suddenly realized that without the two frog kids, he was left alone with the alien and the threatening pollywog. In fact, Polly hopped around him, prompting him to hiccup, though she had no interest in harming him. Yet.

She actually went for Anne, who still looked as upset as ever.

"Anne, as much as I liked that sudden leaping at this dummy, I gotta say, I don't understand well what deal is with you and him. I mean, okay, he called you an 'alien'. So what? You got called worse names here in Wartwood in the last month. What is an alien even?"

"An a-alien… wait, you don't know?" Anne's stupor was shaken away. The frogs here didn't know about that word…?

"Never heard of it."

"I did not, either…"

They turned at the merchant, who gulped as he suddenly felt the questioning gazes of the two drilling into his soul. "I mean… I didn't, until the alien… that is, the alien I was referring to earlier, told the others that she was an alien. Her words, not mine."

"Wait… so, this alien… actually told you she was an alien?"

Anne was very puzzled when the merchant nodded vigorously. The guy may have been lying to find his way out, but this was such a minor detail, it didn't sound likely he was just trying to save himself—in fact, it made her just even more determined to interrogate him further.

After all, it was something she couldn't wrap her mind around that well. She didn't really picture Marcy and Sasha as people who would try to introduce themselves as aliens to the natives of Amphibia. She wasn't fully sure, of course, but… Sasha may have tried pulling some trick of sorts to get the strangers to do whatever she wanted, sure, and Marcy loved role-playing enough that sliding into a new role was probably her very first thought once she showed up in this world.

But why an alien of all things? Sasha wasn't particularly a fan of science fiction media to get inspiration from, and Marcy would probably try to choose something that made sense in the world, if she really wanted to role-play that is. And both would immediately realize that Amphibia was somewhat stuck at a technology level comparable to their Middle Ages, with the odd piece of technological wonder here and there—that was valid for the Frog Valley at least. Heck, these guys didn't even know about the word 'alien' itself!

And the only reason that toad had used that moniker, was because he had seen someone who introduced themselves as such.

No, there were some holes in this story, and Anne absolutely wanted to get clearer answers from that merchant.

"Sooo…" Anne approached the toad, trying to ease her breath rate and not lose control again. Lashing out would probably just make this guy pass out on the spot. "You said… there was another alien. That you met that right?"

He nodded. "They were as ugly as you."

"I get that a lot… well, I used to, but thanks for the reminder," Anne deadpanned.

The toad realized he was being disrespectful. "I m-mean no offense, of course! It's just way different to what I'm used to see around the Valley. And there are a pretty good lot of weird faces around here. That skin tone though, large eyes, and the hideous—ideal, I mean ideal, bump right at the centre of your face… You are definitely another alien just like her, there's no doubt about it."

"Okay, then. If that's the case, Mr. merchant guy—"

"Paul Silvertoad," the toad cut her off. "At your… service, I g-guess."

"Okay… 'Paul'. So, did this alien tell you her name? What was it?" Anne barely contained her excitement at the prospect of finally finding confirmation that one of her friends was alive.

"No, she didn't," Paul replied, making Anne's hopeful face deflate into a disappointed grimace. "To be honest, she was a pretty weird case. She came into town hiding behind that weird, large hat of hers, so we didn't realize at first that she was a monster. Presented herself as coming from 'space' and asked something about shiny hourglasses. She was the weirdest monster I had ever seen for sure! You on the other hand—"

Anne lost focus as the merchant talked. Hat? Hourglasses? What was the deal with her friends? She could at most expect them to be looking for the music box, not some random hourglasses. There were plenty of those, even in Wartwood! And neither of them wore hats that often.

"Uh, Anne? Anne?"

"W-wha—?" she shook her head, looking down at Polly who was tugging on her leg.

"The 'Paul' guy here. You better hear what he's talking about, Anne."

Anne focused again on Paul, who fidgeted under her severe gaze.

"You are making no sense to me, 'Paul-ie'. So, you better start saying something that actually makes sense very soon!" she growled, pointing a finger at the nervous toad, prodding him in the chest.

"I swear to my good mother, may her soul rest in peace, and the entire Silvertoad family name, that I am being as honest as you are letting me be! This alien thing was around Lily Paddington only for a bit before we drove her out, but she was very much the same of your kind! I didn't talk with her directly, but I heard her talking with other people in town, and I saw her with my own eyes. I'm telling the truth here!"

"Then why isn't this 'alien' acting like my friends?!"

"I-I don't know!"

"Maybe because it's not one of your friends?"

Both Paul and Anne looked down at Polly.

"I mean, Anne, if this alien isn't like your friends, maybe it's really just another person."

"But he said he's another human, basically!" Anne countered. "'Face-bump', fair skin, human-like eyes. Right?"

"That's right," Paul confirmed, but adding right after, "Though, you're way, way taller than her."

"T-t-taller?" Anne blabbered. That detail supported Polly's hypothesis even further, as much as she disliked believing that.

"Mmm-mmh!" Paul hummed in confirmation. "She was about as tall as… him!"

"Hello to you, too!" Sprig saluted, joining back with the group. "I failed to convince Ivy to stick around. She's not really into friendship drama, apparently. By the way, what did I miss?"

Paul didn't explain the situation to him, nor did Polly and Anne, who kept watching the toad expectantly. He moved a hand over Sprig's hat, picking it as reference. "In fact, she was… a bit taller than this young frog here, I'd say. One or two caterpillars of length, give or take. Hat notwithstanding, of course."

Anne remembered from Hop-Pop's quick lessons about Amphibian's culture that caterpillars were a small measure of length, vaguely comparable to her inches. Which meant, that this human-looking alien… or whatever she was… was younger than her, and not just by a small bit.

"She was also dressed differently than you. Frankly, you look pretty plain, miss… Anne, compared to her." Paul was trying his best to be polite, though it worked out only partly. "The kid had a pair of impressive boots, a long purple-blue-ish sweater with a cape running around her shoulders, neck and down her back, complete with a large zipper. Had two hair strands coming down the sides of her head as well, and a ponytail. And yet, everything paled compared to that hat of hers, a large top hat of finesse I rarely saw in my travels. Thought those were exclusive to newts of Newtopia and only a few other rich towns outside the Valley!"

…

"It… it doesn't make sense. No, you're lying!"

"Anne—" Sprig started.

"No, no, this is no lie!" Paul insisted. "You have my word for it—Silvertoad merchants have never, uh, outright lied to their clients… and, uh, well, to threatening acquaintances either!"

"You got to be lying! Tell me the actual truth! Was it a blonde girl with a ponytail? Or one with dark hair? Why did they tell you to lie about their likeness!?"

"Anne!"

"WHAT?!" she shouted, jerking back at Sprig. The frog couldn't help hopping back in surprise, prompting Anne to realize she had lost control again.

She covered her face with her hands. "Oh gosh…"

"Anne… maybe Paulie here is really telling the truth—" Polly started.

"Paul."

A glare from Polly told Paul that he needed to shut up for the time being.

"He may be a merchant pushover, but he is scared enough I don't think he'd risk it, even if he really was asked to lie by one of your friends. And that is probably not the case… right, Paulie?"

"Right, right…" Paul let out an awkward laugh. He definitely did not plan to lie, what with the glares Polly sent at him every odd minute.

"Besides, he gave a pretty clear description of this alien, uh… girl," Sprig added, walking back to Anne's side. "I mean, sweater with a zipper, and cape? That's not something you see that often around the Valley."

Anne knew that their logic was technically impeccable, but it was still hard for her to accept their theory as truth. "B-but it doesn't make sense. Are you telling me that someone else from Earth came into Amphibia, completely independently from me and my friends? What are the odds of that?! We haven't figured out space travel yet that well back home, let alone teleportation through worlds!"

"Hmm, wait though… maybe it's not a human, but it's really an 'alien'?" Sprig wondered.

Anne's eyes narrowed. "Sprig, Polly said earlier she had no idea what that word means. I guess you aren't any different…"

"True, but that's not important here, because maybe it's an alien—as in 'not human'. Right? So, let's say this alien, this… foreigner girl, comes from outside Amphibia, like you. But it's not from Earth, unlike you. So, maybe she really came here another way, and she has a wholly different story compared to yours. Hence why she has no connection whatsoever to you and your friends. Hmm, that could work."

"M-maybe…" Anne conceded, "but it still doesn't explain why she still looks like a human, then. Assuming Paulie here is telling the truth…"

"I might have missed that part, but consider… you got frogs in your world as well, right? You told me about it, they're just… not exactly as smart. And smaller."

"R-iiight… I think this is a bit different than—"

"Then, I don't see why we can't have humans in other worlds either! Heck, maybe we just discovered a whole new species of human that is called an 'alien' and is native to Amphibia, and you were the first one to discover it, Paulie!"

"A-actually, I just happened to walk by when the alien showed up, and—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Paul got interrupted by Anne, as right now he was being ignored by her and the two Plantar kids. "That's far-fetched, and you know it. There must be something else to this… 'alien', even if she's not Sasha or Marcy… it just sounds too fishy for me, too unlikely to be a coincidence'. There has to be more to it!"

"Well, I guess that the only way to find out is to ask the alien herself, because that's all I got to share," Paul interjected. "The thing almost made me retch on the stop once she revealed her face, so I was fast on my merry way and didn't inspect further. I said all I could from what I saw and heard, so if you'll excuse me—"

"Not so fast, Paulie!" Polly bellowed. "We haven't finished questioning you, so if you'd be kind to just stand immobile while I—"

"No, Polly… you can let him go," Anne said, much to Polly's surprise.

"What?!" Polly said with dismay. "And coming from you?!"

"R-really?" even Paul himself was in disbelief.

"I was going to have so much fun making this guy say his prayers, come on!"

"No, no… we don't have to press him further. I d-do think he's telling what he thinks is the truth. I just… I just don't understand how that makes sense, right now."

Anne looked up to the nervous toad. "You can go, Paulie."

"P-Paul."

"Yes, right, whatever. You can go… s-sorry about the inconvenience."

Not waiting any longer, Paul proceeded to grab the leads of his two load-carrying snails and pulled them into a quick retreat from the three kids. He soon disappeared behind a corner, aiming for the stand market of Wartwood.

"Hehe, I like the way he's still scared. I appreciate the fear," Polly chuckled to herself. "By the way, you're no fun, Anne."

Anne didn't reply at first.

"Anne?" Sprig called her name. And when she didn't reply again, he tried grabbing her wrist. "Hey, you okay?"

Her eyes went wide. "Huh?"

"You spaced out again, girl. This Paulie guy really got into you… Wow, he's actually good," Polly noted.

"No, no, guys. I… I'm sorry, it's just that… I-I felt like that for a moment, I had a lead, a real one. Something to follow to find one of my friends, who I haven't seen for a month… and it felt so real! But then, puff. Turns out that it's neither of them. It's still a human… or something like a human. But either way… it's neither of them."

She sighed. "Guess it's still going to be a while before I manage to find any of them, at this rate…"

"Hey… we're gonna find them," Sprig reassured her. "We'll keep trying. They must be somewhere out there, and once they show up, you'll have your reunion. Until then, though, I guess we can expect to stumble on some false leads."

"Yeah… maybe you're right. It still irks me, though…"

"Well, it's not one of your friends, so as far as I'm concerned, it's not our business. Let that alien-thing deal with her own problems," Polly said. "We already got ours, such as—"

"Kids?"

"Right," she concluded.

Hop-Pop had already made his return to Wartwood's square, and as the kids turned to regard him, they saw he was carrying a small bag.

"Wow, Hop-Pop, you were pretty quick with Loggle. Was it that easy to find what you were looking for?" Sprig said.

"Actually, he'd already prepared everything I needed before I even opened the door to his workshop. It kind of scared me," he shuddered, but his smile returned right after. "Well, in any case, that's done, so now it's grocery time. Let's get this done, kids, the faster we are the less time you'll spend there."

"Oh, all right, Hop-Pop," the three kids chorused together, Polly adding a groan at the end.

"You better have some sweets added to the shopping list, Hop-Pop!"

"Oh, oh, can we have some of those new beetle snacks! I heard from Ivy that they are delicious!"

The two kids started bantering with their grandfather concerning the additions to the possible food provisions they needed to buy, all while Anne didn't listen to a single word they said.

The actual words that she was hearing were the ones Paul had told her. That, and the vague image of a little girl, sporting a large top hat and a peculiar clothing attire.

She was winking at her with a smug grin, for some reason.

No, it didn't just irk her. The entire ordeal confused her, keeping her agitated and even… mad.

…it just didn't make sense! It simply couldn't! She hardly believed there could be humans in Amphibia, just living by and showing up now out of decades of history, and if that 'alien' was real, they had come to Amphibia in some way, which meant that there was a chance of an alternative way to go back home, without having to use the currently malfunctioning music box.

And even if the 'alien' name was actually accurate to her, and she was going to deal with a space-travelling race—it still meant that this stranger had a way in and out of Amphibia, and possibly more. Something that could be of great help to find her friends.

Then, Paul's parting words rang in her head.

'I guess that the only way to find out is to ask the alien herself.'

As Anne finally looked up from the floor of the grocery shop, as she got there simply by following the Plantar family mechanically, she had found a new resolve within herself.

She just had to work on her persuasion skills a little before executing her idea.

"Absolutely not!"

Well, that didn't go as well as she hoped.

"Hop-Pop, wait, before you—"

"Na-ah, Anne! Lily Paddington is swarming with toads! It's the only town in the entire ding-dang Frog Valley where there are more toads than frogs living in it, and worse than that, it's the closest to Toad Tower out of all the towns. I know for a fact that those bullies visit the town every other day, so we would end up encountering them for sure… and you wanna go there and risk getting more of them on our tails? Those toads remember about the faces of the enemies they meet! No, thank you!"

"B-but we don't have to actually get inside the town and stay there for long, Hop-Hop!" Anne countered. Sprig and Polly were sitting nearby, watching the exchange as they moved their gaze back and forth between the two. "We'd just have to check the area around it for this 'alien'. You can even go there on your own with Sprig and Polly since you know the place, ask a couple of questions, while I hide outside, and then once you're done you can get out and we can finish our business by searching for our woman directly!"

Hop-Pop shook his head. "It's way too dangerous to hang around that place, Anne, no matter whether you mean to stay within or just nearby Lily Paddington. It would be dangerous enough even if I were to go there on my own! It certainly would be for my pockets, which are enough empty as they are!"

"B-but it would just be a fast visit, a matter of hours! We just have to check what that merchant was talking about, nothing else!"

There was a snort. "One of those toad merchants from Lily Paddington? I should've known. Puah! As if they weren't trying to get your attention for copper, Anne. I already have little respect for those who handle copper and no produce, but a toad one? It screams 'he-hey, kind stranger, follow me so that I can suck you dry of all your hard-earned money!'."

"Hop-Pop, I don't think that's the case for our toad here. This guy, Paulie, he was a big scaredy-cat and was clearly frightened by Anne," Sprig interjected. "He was definitely too worked up to be pulling an act."

"Yeah, I don't really think that guy wanted to trick her. I didn't even have to get out my morning star flail to threaten him into submission," Polly added. "Frankly, he was a big disappointment for a toad, though I enjoyed the feeling of power I had over him!"

That got Hop-Pop to at least reconsider his thoughts, humming to himself in thought. "You say so? I don't know kids; it still sounds fishy to me…"

Anne interpreted that hesitation as an opening, and one she had to make use of.

"Hop-Pop, listen to me, just listen to this last bit. I understand, Lily Paddington might not be the best place around the valley to hang out. But when I say we don't have to stay there for long to do what I'm asking, I really mean it! I know for a fact thanks to Paulie what we need to look for, and I assure you—if what we're looking for is really something worth the name 'alien', we won't take long to find it, and it's likely something that is safely far from the town. We get there, you get in the town and ask around the place for clues about where the 'alien' might be found, then we check it. Before you know it, we'll be on our way home!"

"Anne, it might sound possible in the way you put it, but you're still far from convincing me that this journey is worth it. You also just got out of your cast, so technically you're still injured—and you're asking to take on a few-days-long journey here. It just sounds like a risk we could avoid taking."

"But it—" she stopped herself before she could say that, for her, it was indeed worth it, injury or not. Realistically, she couldn't know if it was worth it… even if Paulie was too scared to lie, perhaps he himself had been lied to.

Perhaps the alien really existed, but they were not connected at all with Earth, the same Earth Anne came from at least. So, going back home was still going to be a problem.

Perhaps they were not going to be of any help at all in her own quest to find her friends as well.

Yet, in her head, she couldn't imagine herself forgetting about the 'alien'… despite how weak the pros of taking on the journey to meet her sounded, she had to go there and see with her own eyes who this girl-alien-thing was. Even if it sounded unlikely, it could still be a step closer towards Marcy and Sasha, a step closer towards her escape route from Amphibia and towards seeing her parents (and her cat) again.

Worst case scenario… it could be a confirmation that, perhaps, in this entire situation she had found herself in, trapped in a new world of frog people… she wasn't as alone as she initially felt, given that her human friends were still nowhere to be found.

"I j-just have to go there, Hop-Pop…" she let out with a strained voice. "It may sound weird, stupid, whatever you want, and I understand you, b-but… but I still need to go there. I need to make sure with my own eyes that this 'alien' is real, and if she is, I need to meet her and find out if she can be of any help!"

Hop-Pop might have not changed his view that much concerning the cost and gain analysis of the new quest Anne was proposing, but he didn't miss how Anne sounded crestfallen, almost desperate as she kept insisting, despite him repeatedly telling her that this was a bad idea.

He still couldn't understand that well how the 'alien' could be that important to her, let alone what an 'alien' was. He had heard the kids talk about 'space' and 'things up and up away in the sky' in regard to the 'alien' matter, no doubt another Earth concept Anne had shared with them. All of it was very hard to believe for the old frog.

But Anne's eyes brimmed with an honesty that he could recognize without a doubt as genuine. Anne really wanted to go to Lily Paddington and follow this 'alien' lead to its very end, and she wasn't just throwing a fit. It was as if she was going to start straight up crying on the spot.

"Now Anne, calm down…" he started, opening a hand towards her. Once Anne managed to understand he wanted to get closer, she lowered down enough that he could put a hand over her shoulder. "I still think it's a bad idea overall, but… but if you think this is worth the effort, if it's really that important to you, then, well… I think we can find an agreement and arrange for a short trip to the north of the Frog V—"

He found the air missing from his amphibian lungs as Anne suddenly wrapped her arms around him and clung to him in a death grip. She completely ignored the pain from the injured arm. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"A-Anne, you… y-you're kind o-of choking me out—" he managed to splutter. Anne immediately let him go. "Woops! Uh, hee… sorry, HP."

"I still can't believe I let you call me that…" Hop-Pop grumbled under his breath. "And you better be on your best behaviour, young girl. We'll have to prepare in advance for the trip, and we'll also have to set the farm up to stay without care for the few days we'll need to make it back and forth from Lily Paddington, so I need you to be ready to help out—as far as that injury lets you."

"Pff, I'm good, Hop-Pop. I'm going to be ready for whatever you're going to ask!"

He slightly shook his head in doubt, then glanced at the two frog kids that had been standing by the entire time. "That goes for you two as well… since I know you are as willing as her to go."

"Hey, you're saying that as if it's a crime we're guilty! We hardly visited the towns around the Valley—we visited some places, but you never led us to the actual towns!" Sprig protested. "I'm up for a change!"

"Because they're full of strangers who want nothing but suck you dry! All of them!"

Sprig wasn't convinced. "You always say that. For all towns."

"Don't worry, Hop-Pop. I'll protect you from any lamprey toad who dares attacking your wallet!" Polly tweeted, a hand raised in the air in a showcase of strength. "Besides, I have been looking for a good challenge in a new environment!"

Hop-Pop's narrowed eyes were tell-tale on his feelings concerning Polly's declaration, but he didn't share them with her. "You two keep doing your work around here if you wanna stick around for the journey, is all I can say. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go and plan up ahead what we'll need to do and get for the trip. If everything goes smoothly, we leave in two days!"

He turned around, and a few seconds later he had disappeared into his study.

"You know… I envy your dialectics, Anne. My puppy dog eyes tactic rarely works with him…" Sprig lamented.

"It does for me, he-he," Polly chuckled.

"Thanks, but… I wasn't really trying to be convincing, I just…" Anne said, hesitating on how to explain herself.

"This thing… this is really important for me. It's the first time since I got here, that I feel like I have something to strive for, a goal, anything… that might help me, something that is actually inside the Valley. And… I need to get to the bottom of it. I have to."

That said she took in a deep breath. The discussion with Hop-Pop had taken its toll on her, and she felt surprisingly tired. Then again, she had almost been on the verge of begging on her knees.

All of it, for an 'alien'. In her mind, she imagined UFOs filling the night sky of Amphibia, ready to pick her up with suction rays and abduct her from Wartwood.

Huh… she really couldn't blame Hop-Pop, when he said this sounded far-fetched.

Yet, maybe she just had to rethink what she imagined as 'aliens' in her world, pop-culture-based views of raspy-voiced Martians and floating discs. Yet another reason to take on whatever went under that name in Amphibia.

Perhaps, meeting the 'alien'… this… girl with the hat, was really going to mark a new phase of her stay in Amphibia.