So I didn’t write *exactly* that, but I did write something that would take place after it in a stream of consciousness!
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It had been a few months since the portal had opened deep in the forests outside of Wartwood. Or rather, it had been that long since anybody had really noticed it opening there. Wally had been the one to discover the small glowing hole in space opening up like the eye of Frog on another of his late night walks home from the Tavern.
Of course, since he described it as a giant glowing eye in the dark, nobody believed him. The amphibians of the small, but bustling community continued on with life as normal. The glowing white eye in the woods, if it was even real, would no doubt sort itself out.
By the time Sprig, Polly and Ivy had returned from their latest adventure on the new continent, things had progressed rapidly. Not only had more frogs seen the Eye, but it was much bigger as well. And not only that, there were sightings of enormous, faceless creatures appearing in groups all over the woods! So of course, Sprig did what he did every time he heard of something probably enormous and dangerous lurking in the woods. He ran off to track it down.
It didn’t take him too long. Coming across a group of the creatures after only a few minutes of hopping the direction he was pointed into the woods. They weren’t exactly keeping a low profile, after all. Sprig watched them from above in a tree branch as the creatures puttered about below. Examining the plants, plucking leaves and bits of soil from the smaller ones and placing them into small vials before sealing them off and attaching them to a belt around their waists. They spoke to each other often, though the voices were too muffled for Sprig to catch more than a few words at time. He quickly realized why.
Whatever the creatures were, this wasn’t what they really looked like. They were all wearing suits of some kind. The bodies were shiny and white, but with pitch black rubbery gloves and boots. On the head was what looked like an enormous hood with an opaque visor, obscuring the wearer’s face. They looked familiar to the young frog. Kind of like the scientists he saw years and years ago when his family was captured by the government on Earth.
Suddenly, Sprig felt his heart beating faster in his chest. Earth… Was it possible? Well, only one to find out!
“Hey down there!” He called from his perch. The creatures all jumped in surprise at the noise and turned their heads up to see the small pink frog waving down at them. For a minute, things went quiet again. The creatures on the ground looked at eachother, seemingly unsure about what to do, until finally one waved back awkwardly.
“Uh… Hello,” a muffled, male voice responded, “You’re the first local that didn’t run away screaming when we tried to make contact.” his companions nodded in affirmation to eachother.
“Yeah, that sounds right,” Sprig replied. Despite how much things had changed in Amphibia, Wartwood’s motto did still remain in place for a reason, “So, who are you guys? Where are you from?” He put a bit more emphasis on the second question than he probably meant to, but he was remarkably composed for what he was hoping to hear. The speaker paused for a second, as though trying to recall what exactly he should be saying, “Well, I’m Dr. Andrews. My team and I are on an expedition from a planet called Earth that-”
“Earth!? You guys are from Earth?” Sprig couldn’t contain himself any longer. The one thing he hadn’t dared to hope had just come true for him. In his excitement, he leapt down from the tree onto Andrews shoulders and clung to him by fistfuls of his shiny suit, “How did you get here? Can you get back? Is Anne with you? Anne Boonchuy?” Sprig stared into the visor, hoping to see a human face that would flicker with recognition at the name, but all he saw was a walleyed reflection of himself staring back.
Andrews was frozen in shock along with his team, again surprised and unsure how to react to the alien local leaping atop one of their colleagues. Eventually though, Andrews composed himself and was able to respond.
“Uh, no, I’m afraid there’s no one on the team by that name,” he responded. Sprig felt his heart sink at that. Some part of him always assumed that if there ever was another portal built on earth to Amphibia, Anne would have been the one leading the charge back. Did she really just move on and forget him like he was always afraid she would when she left all those years ago?
As his hopes sank, Sprig himself slid down from Andrew’s shoulders and plopped down to the ground, “Oh…” Was all he could say in response. There was another heavy moment of silence between the group before it was interrupted once more.
“Do you know a human named Anne Boonchuy?” Andrews asked, curiously. Sprig nodded quietly, still somewhat lost in his own thoughts, “How is that possible?” he continued. Sprig sighed.
“It’s a long story.” He replied simply.
“Well…” Andrews began, gesturing to his team, they returned to whatever work they had been doing before Sprig had introduced himself. The scientist himself stepped over to a fallen log and sat down upon it , “I’ve got plenty of time to listen.” He patted the spot next to him, and though Sprig couldn’t see his face, he could feel a warm smile in his voice. The pink frog smiled back appreciatively and sat down next to the large human and began his story.
“It all started back when I was a young frog, barely beyond a tadpole, when I heard stories of a monster living in the woods…”
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It had been yet more months since that day of contact. There were many more humans in Amphibia than ever before. Still just scientists and research teams in the Wartwood area of the valley though. Sprig and Polly had allowed the expedition to set up a camp on the outskirts of the farm after a couple scientists at the old camp deep in the woods had almost been carried off by KillaMoths in the night. The expedition had grown considerably since first contact. Sprig acting as something of an ambassador between them and the
There were now multiple teams with different areas of study, now all colour coded by their suits to keep track of each other.
Green was the colour of the Botany team. They mostly kept to the forest, cataloguing the species of trees and were often accompanied by the Brown coloured Geology team. They were both very excited to discover Hop Pop’s old Avocado orchard. Believing it’d be decades before they’d get to observe the development of a species of an earth plant on an alien planet. The old frog would be proud if he could’ve seen so many people so excited about farming.
The Red Suits were the entomologists, arachnologists, basically anything big with too many legs was their field of study. Polly took a special interest in this group. Not for any of their actual study, but as an escort for the team, it meant ample opportunity to show off her exceptional talent for violence when a member of the team would inevitably try to get too close to a subject for examination. The young frog also took great delight in making the team run drills and exercises each morning to whip them into fighting shape for the inevitable danger they were running headlong into. Or at least good enough shape to run back out of it.
Finally, the blue team were the Herpetologists. Though most of them would often joke that they felt more like anthropologists. None of the Wartwood residents ever understood it though. But they rolled their eyes and tolerated the questions and note taking of the suited humans as they marvelled at the alien society formed by creatures that were mere animals back on their own world.
It was early in the morning when Sprig found one such instance staring, seemingly in awe of the farmhouse. They must have been a new addition to the team. So, Sprig decided to introduce himself in the usual way. Hopping up to the blue suited human, he cleared his throat and posed himself as dignified as possible. The reflective visor covering the human’s face turned down slightly to face him.
“Welcome to Amphibia, human! I’m known as Ambassador Plantar!” he cheekily relaxed his demeanor before continuing with, “But my friends call me-”
“Sprig…?” a woman’s voice interrupted him from behind the visor. Sprig froze in place, a chill ran up and down his spine. The voice was familiar. Very familiar. He turned his head back up to see the blue suited human reach her hands to the side of her head. With a faint hiss, the veil was lifted and Sprig saw the first real human face he had seen in what felt like decades.
Her face was less round than he remembered, but looked just as soft as it had been all those years ago. Her dark, curly hair was tied back into a ponytail but a number of strands still framed her face. Her brown eyes shone with welling tears reflecting the morning sun and her expression was a conflicting mixture of surprise, pain and most of all, joy.
“Sprig.” She repeated, her voice breaking slightly. There was no mistaking it now. The memory of her voice was too clear in his head. From the last time she had said his name before leaving, for what he thought was forever, it rang through his mind. He suddenly realized that tears were running down his own face, but he didn’t care. He leapt with all his strength into her.
“Anne!” He cried, grabbing onto her as tight as he could, as though she would turn into smoke if he didn’t. Anne simply wrapped her arms around the pink frog in a powerful bear hug. The two didn’t say anything. They laughed, they sobbed, they cried. What else could they do at that moment beyond just realize that they were together again after all this time.
Finally, once the tears started to wane, Sprig spoke again
“Y-you’re back! After all this time, I always hoped you would,” His large eyes shone with the tears as Anne smiled back down at him. His webbed fingers dug into her suit as he continued, “But… after humans showed up and you weren’t with them, I was… I was starting to think that maybe you had forgotten about us. That you’d moved on…” He buried his face against her chest and smiled despite his tears.
Anne sniffled in response and wiped her tears with her sleeve before beaming down at him, “Hey,” she called to him. He looked back up at his big sister’s face, new tears already forming in her eyes, “Spranne against the world, right?”
Sprig sniffled back, wiping his own eyes clear before returning her smile with a nod.
“Spranne against the world.”
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