Back again | Amphibia

Welcome Back

"Wartwood."

"We're in Wartwood? As in Amphibia Wartwood?!" Sasha jumped up.

"Looks like it!" Marcy looked around, unsure to sound excited or scared.

"This is the forest I was in when I first appeared, which means there's wild mantis!" Anne grabbed her friend's hands and started running.

After about five minutes of running and Marcy tripping on tree roots, they made it to the edge of the woods. There stood a rather dinky town. There were several houses, made of mushrooms, logs and pretty much anything. The smell of fertilizer and frog slime filled the air. It was... the most wonderful stench ever to waft by.

"I- I'm finally back." Anne started slowly waking towards the town, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

As they made their way towards the main plaza, new structural additions began to come into sight. The town was decorated with banners and other celebration items, and most prominent of all, instead of the town founder's statue, there stood a giant statue of Anne Boonchuy, holding the music box and her sword pointing over the horizon.

"Awwwe, Anne, they built a statue of you!" Marcy was trying not to run around in excitement.

"Hold on." Anne stopped as she spotted a frog in front of the statue.

The frog looked a dark pink, wearing denim overalls with short orange hair, and a yellow bow topping off the look. The frog was standing up, looking up at the statue. Anne walked up a few feet behind her, Anne's friends staying back let her have this moment.

"Polly?" Anne almost whispered.

The pink frog whipped her head around, eyes widening. "I know that voice."

It was indeed Polly, she had grown a body, and her hair had been kept short, hugging her head. The two stared at each other for a moment. Polly looked at the statue, then Anne again.

"Anne?" Polly questioned.

"POLLY!!" Anne ran towards the pink frog, and Polly ran forward.

"Anne! Anne!" Polly cling onto Anne like a leech, crying, "you're back, you're back!!"

" Polly! It's been so long! I missed you so much! Oh look at you!" Anne separated from Polly to get a good look at her, "You've grown so much!"

It was true. Polly must have been around 15-16 now.

"Anne! I thought you would never be back! We all thought you could never be back! You won't believe it, I'm a mechanic now! Speaking of being back. How did you even get here without the music box?"

"It's a really long story, but we need to get home... again." Anne laughed at the thought. Ten years later and they were going through this again.

"We? You mean..." Polly looked behind Anne and saw Marcy and Sasha, Sasha throwing a nervous wave.

"You guys are back too!" Polly shouted running over and hugging both of their legs, "Quickly, you have to get to our house, the family's not gonna believe it!"

Polly grabbed Sasha and Marcy's hands and nodded at Anne to follow. "Come on come on!"

They were eventually led to the familiar home housing the Plantar family. It hadn't changed much at all, but instead of the normal crops, there were avocados everywhere.

"Huh," Anne stated, "guess he really did start that avocado empire."

Hop pop was out on the porch, cleaning a stubborn window, which wasn't really working that well as it was still as smudged as Anne remembered. Polly ran up behind him.

"HP! Look who came to visit!" Polly jumped excitedly."

"Dangit Polly! How many times have I told you not to call me-"

Hop Pop turned around, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the familiar monstrosity of a human body.

"Hey HP, it's me." Anne started tearing up again, at this rate she would be too dehydrated to function.

Anne knelt down ad Hop Pop collapsed into her arms. "Oh AnNe, I mIsSeD yOu So MuCh!"

"I missed you too HP." Anne squeezed him tightly.

Sasha was happy to see her friend reunite with her frog family, and turned to Marcy to see how she was doing... only to find her putting a "marcy wuz here 😋👍" sticky-note onto the window.

"What? They're cute! Want one?" Marcy offered Sasha a note.

Sasha smirked and pushed it away, "Tsk, you goofball."

"Anne, ya got to get in here, Sprig's gonna lose his marbles!" Hop Pop

Anne had thought about seeing Sprig again, but now that it was actually going to happen, Anne's mind went into hyper-excitement mode. Heck, wouldn't he be 20 now or something? Geez that would be weird.

"Where is he?" Anne grasped Hop Pop's shoulders.

"He's probably in the basement, he spends a lot of time there believe it or not." Hop Pop opened the door and started to lead them inside.

They made it to the old wooden trapdoor in the stone floor, which 10 years earlier would have led to her room. It still looked around the same, but the wood and handle had been cleaned. And the hinges looked like they were still being used daily.

Anne grabbed the handle and slowly opened it up. It looked exactly as she remembered it. The stone and wood steps were slightly covered in moss, and she scanned the inside of her old room. There was a cork board on wheels pushed to the side, with various notes and pictures pinned to it, along with a single leaf. Off to the side there was an old sleeping bag and mattress which used to be hers. In the center of the room, there was a table and chair, with papers all over it and an open journal. However none of these things registered when she saw who was sitting in the creaky wooden chair.

There in the chair , sat a brightly pink colored frog, with a dark green jacket, black pants, and an iconic hat with googles, orange hair peeking out from under it. The frog's yellow tongue was sticking out in concentration as he was carefully sketching a humanoid figure in the open journal, occasionally looking at an electronic device in an orange cat phone case for a reference to the drawing.

Anne took a breath, preparing herself not to let her voice crack, knowing it would happen anyways, "Sprig?"

Sprig's head jolted up after being snapped out of his concentration. The two made eye contact for a moment, and if you were there you would be able to see the gears turning in their heads.

"Anne." Sprig whispered.

Sprig slowly got up out of his chair, and stared at Anne for a few second longer, before hopping emotionally at Anne. Anne hugged him as tight as possible. They distanced for a moment to get a good look at each other, then quickly pulled one of their hands back with a tearful smile.

"Spranne against the world!"

They slapped their hands together twice before interlocking their fingers and wiggling them.

They both started giggling, which eventually erupted into ugly crying.

"Oh S-Sprig! You've grown up so m-much!" Anne sniffled up whatever was leaking out her nose, and hugged him even tighter.

Sprig was just crying, too shocked and happy to form coherent sentences.

This went on for about a minute, Marcy and Sasha awkwardly passing the time by saying hello to the Plantars.

Sprig and Anne finally disconnected from the hug, hands still on each other's shoulders.

"What are you, 20 now?  Man this is weird." Anne sniffled.

"Heh. You're missing a shoe." Sprig pointed to her bare right foot.

"OH COME ON!!"

5/30/22 - Edited