Chapter 16: Family Shrub

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Sub-Zero: You know, Hop Pop, back home we call this a family tree.

Hop Pop: That's 'cause everyone in your world is crazy. Now, then where was I? Oh, yes, Great Aunt Gertrude. She was a masterful dirt tiller. I mean, how cool is that?

All: Eh.

Hop Pop: Oh, and you can't forget second cousin Alfred. He was the KING!

They gasps

All: A KING?

Hop Pop: Yeah! The KING of single-tiered irrigation systems.

They groans

Anne: Yep, you lost me.

Polly: Our ancestors were boring!

Sprig: Were they really all just farm frogs? Where are the artists? The poets? The dreamers?

Hop Pop: Just farm frogs? Kids, the point of the shrub is to give you an appreciation for your past. The Plantar family has layers. You just have to know where to look.

Anne: Layers, huh? Okay, then. Well, what's so special about her?

Hop Pop: Polliana? Oh, brace yourselves. She wasn't just any farmer. She was a turnip farmer!

They groans

Anne: Welp, as much as I'd love to help, not gonna find any of my ancestors on your shrub, so...

She gaming music playing

Hop Pop: Don't have to be blood to be a Plantar, Anne.

Anne: No, but you do have to be a master stacker to get to level 46. If I can just...

She groans

Anne: Curse you, sudden death round! Why you so hard?

Hop Pop: Anne, this is based on nothing at all, but I'm almost certain that game will rot your brain! Uh-oh, looks like we're out of glue!

Sprig: Does that mean we have to stop?

Polly: Can we do something fun now?

Sub-Zero: Can I sleep?

Hop Pop: No fun till the shrub's done. Just gonna run to the store real quick and get more glue. Be back in a jiffy.

He hums

Hop Pop: Don't go anywhere!

Polly: Ah! You're lucky you're an outsider, Anne and Sub-Zero. Our family history is weak.

Sprig: They didn't do anything weird. Or different. Or fun. I mean, look at this.

Sprig hop over the fireplace

Sprig: Even this painting's making me feel depressed. What the... Whoa!

Sprig leans to the painting, but it turns out he revealed a secret passage

Polly: Sprig! You broke the house.

Anne: Whoa. Oh, wow. This looks unsafe. We have to go down there.

Sprig: There could be treasure.

Polly: Or dead bodies! Let's do it!

Sprig: Uh, did we just get locked in here?

Anne: No, no, no.

Sprig: Let us out!

Anne: Help! Wait!

Polly: Come on, let's just find another way out, you babies.

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