The Isles of Amphibia

A Peculiar World/The Bard and the Frog

This new world was.. interesting, to say the least. She saw that the trees and grass were a bit more purple-ish. Mushrooms were glowing, and it was weird but pretty. Luckily, they were a pretty good light source. There was a variety of colors, from purple to blue to green to peach and coral. There were fairies. It was dim.

Anne had mixed feelings about this place.

Anne got up. She had leaves and sticks in her hair. As she looked around, she noticed how dark it was here, compared to the scene behind her. It was a green, boiling lake. A dark blue sky hugged everything that lied below it, similar to what it looked like on Earth in the evenings.

So that's where the humidity's coming from, Anne thought.

She paid attention to the fairies when she looked forward. Anne walked to one of them. It had silky smooth golden hair and pink skin. Anne held out her hand, and the fairy sat on her palm. She smiled at the human.

"Hmm," Anne said. "This place doesn't seem so bad-"

The fairy bit her thumb in an attempt to bite it off like a carrot.

"OUCH!" Anne yelped. She swatted the fairy. Some other fairies looked at her. "Uh oh," Anne mumbled. She quickly looked around, and found one path that looked safe to cross. She bolted and screamed, and the fairies charged at her, like wasps, or even blood-thirsty mosquitoes. She was too busy running for her dear life to think about it too much.

__________

A pink frog mumbled as he played the violin. He was good at it, absolutely, but there was one problem; he can't perform spells with it the same way his classmates did.

A tall girl walked by him during his sad attempts of bard magic. She had her hair half up, half down. Her hair was long. It was blonde, as well, except for the roots of her hair which seemed to be black. She was wearing the same thing as Sprig: A gray tunic, boots, cowl, and dark gray belt. Her leggings and sleeves were red. The only difference in their outfits was the salmon-pink scrunchie in her hair. Her ears were round.

"Aw, what's the matter, Plantar?" She asked. "Is something wrong with your violin?"

"Go away, Wayblight." Sprig grunted.

"Waybright, believe it or not," She corrected. "But you almost had it. Maybe you'll get it right some day, just like how you could get this right one day. Pathetic amounts of effort can pay off sometimes." She jeered, gesturing towards whatever Sprig had going on.

Sasha squated and looked maliciousy at Sprig's violin, then back at him. "Let's see what ya got so far, pinkie," she smirked.

Sprig rolled his eyes. He moved the bow across his violen, playing calmly. It was beautiful. Sasha was satisfied when he stopped. Regardless of his talent, he was still weak, and she won as always.

"Oh, man, that was stunning!" She blostered fakely. "I could listen to it all day! Not like it'd hypnotize anyone, so no worries if you ever want to perform on stage."

Sprig started walking, and she stopped him in his tracks. Her icy blue eyes stared at him.

"Unless that was what you were going for, actually manipulating people with your imaginary spells. In that case, word of advice: Gotta practice a bit more if you want to pass. I know your potential, Plantar, but what's the point of being good at this if you can't do anything with it?" She disparaged.

"Step aside, I'm trying to get to class."

Sasha cackled. "Or what? You'll hit me with your violin? Throw a potion at me- Oops, can't do that," She waved her finger in front of him. "Music is what being a bard is all about. Save the potions for the potion-makers."

"I never even wanted to join the bard track. I wanted to be in the potion track."

"Suck it up, you big baby. You can't get everything you want. Especially when you can't even build up the courage to ask the principal to put you in the-"

Sprig had heard enough. He was walking away. Sasha scoffed, offended at Sprig for ignoring her bullying. She pulled out her guitar, and played a note. Sprig couldn't move.

"Listen up, Squeaky Toy. This, what you're doing? Right here? That is why they call you Sprig the Cowardly." She did jazz hands as she declared his nickname. "I'm tired of you shying away from everything. It's almost not fun to torment you anymore. Might have to target your sister if you keep this up, and honestly I'm not in the mood to bother a literal tadpole, so promise that this will be the last time you'll do this, okay?"

Sprig paused. "Fine," he said.

"What's that?" Sasha beamed.

"I said fine!"

"Alright, that settles it. See you in class."

She let him go and strutted to school. Sprig sat down on the ground, defeated once again.

The girl stopped, side-eyed him, and turned around with a wide, satisfied grin on her face. Sprig swore he could hear her chuckling for a moment.

__________

"Oh crud!!!" Anne panicked. She hid behind a tree. The group of fairies flew right past her. "Phew."

She decided it would be best to make her way out of the woods. She saw some bushes next to her. She thought it was a good idea to walk through the bushes. No noise would be made to alarm the fairies, no no no.

She pushed the leaves and moved her way through the bushes. Eventually, she was out of there, and it was a whole new setting. The grass was blue-ish now, but the only change in the sky was the clouds. In front of her was a pink frog, sulking. He had a violin in his hand.

Being Anne, she walked over to the frog.

"Are you okay?" Anne asked. "What's wrong?"

Sprig glanced up at her. Another human.

How many friends does Sasha have? Sprig thought. "Nothing. It doesn't matter."

Anne frowned. "If nothing's wrong, then why are you sad-"

"This girl won't leave me alone because I can't do bard magic," Sprig sobbed, breaking so suddenly. "And I tried to get her to go away, I tried to be the bigger person, I tried to get better at bard magic, I tried everything, and now she's gonna go after my sister if I don't face her but-"

"Whoa, what-"

"I can't face her! I'm too weak! She's gonna win every time. I'm a potions guy! Not a bard! What's a potions guy doing in the bard track!?"

Anne attempted to process that information as Sprig sobbed like a baby.

"I think I might be able to help you with that," Anne insisted when she finally managed to translate Sprig's wailing into words she could understand.