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Polly has always been more of a violent type, or at least that’s what people in town say. But Sprig knew his sister better than that. He saw her bravery, confidence, and intelligence and was only slightly jealous.
Polly had surpassed him in almost every aspect. He knew she took pride in the fact that between the two of them she was deemed the responsible one, but she was just a kid. More often than not the other frogs would forget that, until she was in mortal danger. And like a flip of a switch it was back to his fault for not being a better protective older brother.
Everything changed the night of the shut in.
It was a shock to Anne and the Planters to see Polly turned into a monster, but what was worse was the town's reaction. Frogs took one look at the once well loved pollywog and screamed.
All they saw were massive fangs and sharp horns. They looked at what were once cute nubs for hands, waiting for delicate fingers to grow and become callous from the physical fights she would undoubtedly get into, and saw hairy arms with painted claws at each tip. The glowing blue eyes seemed to pierce the soul, the only sense of familiarity they received was the nearly indestructible bow atop her head, now in ruin.
It took awhile for the people of Wartwood to realize it was still Polly in there. True to their slogan, ‘Slow to Accept and Even Slower to Respect,’ it took days for the older folks to get used to the new her and even longer for her pollywog friends to turn around.
Polly sought comfort in Anne, being the only one to have any clue what she was feeling. “I don’t get it. I sound the same, I act the same and all they do is run. I want my friends back! I want my body back! I just wanted a scary story! Make it stop!” Polly screamed and cried, wishing for an answer, while Anne could do nothing but hold and rock the small child.
It wasn’t the first time, nor the last.
They searched high and low for a way to turn Polly back; every possible solution was met with disappointment. Eventually Polly gave up and quietly asked them to stop looking, they needed to focus on finding Anne a way back home.
Things got better and for a while Polly was able to laugh and bond with the other frogs. She helped with carrying heavy things around for the town, doing jobs they would normally put in requests for toads to come by and take care of.
When it came time for the Planters to start they’re journey to Newtopia the town was sad to see Polly go, giving her and the family well wishes and safe travels. Polly was ecstatic to finally have her own bed, she had been sharing with Anne for a while since her bucket no longer fit.
The journey was slow, they stopped for bathroom breaks in the middle of the night, with not much happening aside from a few weird patrons and their weird comments. It took awhile to catch on to the routine, but once they did HopPop was furious.
In the places they traveled a traveling circus was often brought up, Sprig was obsessed with going to see it, only to be shut down by HopPop in favor of keeping schedule. It turns out they were the traveling circus people were crazy about. With Sprig playing a fiddle on the road and two strange never before seen creatures it was easy to see how they came to that conclusion.
But it only angered HopPop as he had to explain that everyone with him were his grandkids. Anne and Polly were often referred to as Spig and HopPop’s exotic pets. Occasionally prices were thrown around to see if he was willing to part with either of them. Sprig got into more than a few fights to protect his sister's honor.
Polly tried to push HopPop to take it next time it was offered and then she and Anne could just escape. She dubbed her plan foolproof even as everyone talked about the dangers that could follow.
“What if they only want you and they decide you're better as dinner?” Anne crossed her arms.
“I could fight them off. I mean have you seen me!” Polly stood on one hand, flexing the other.
“What if they knock you out like those cannibals!?!” Sprig yelled.
“Well then we can say that Anne and I are a package deal.”
“Polly, they could knock us both out.” Anne deadpanned
“Not if we fight them.”
“Polly, they would probably ask for their money back if we just started to fight them and run away.”
“So we just run faster so they can’t catch us.”
“That's a crime.” Sprig pointed out.
“Boy, from the start everything they said is a crime.” HopPop shouted, “What is with you kids and committin’ felonies”.
Anne shrugged, “It’s fun,” Polly answered.
Polly was happy, she was back to her old self, joking around with Sprig, she really couldn’t care less about what strangers she never met before thought of her. She only knew she couldn’t wait to meet Anne’s other friend, and go back home to hers.
They were on the road when the Fwagon bumped and nearly toppled over the cliff. There was a loud shout and a cry of pain that they had to ignore until the Fwagon was stable. The combined efforts of Bessie and Anne, saved the majority of the supplies.
“Anne take Bessie, I’ve got to see what in Frogs name those two are doing back there.”
“You got it HP.”
When HopPop arrived he was surprised to find Sprig on the ground, face under the bed, a quick look revealed a torn jacket, with a large scratch mark covering his chest and the smallest hint of blood.
“C’mon Polly, I know it was an accident, come on out here. I’m not hurt I promise.”
HopPop looked at the delicate situation and spoke softly. “Okay, who wants to tell me what happened?”
“We were just playing!” Sprig stood, arms stretched out, standing between HopPop and the bed.
“Boy, just tell me what happened here, I’m not mad.”
“Well, Polly wanted to play Zap Tag, but she couldn’t quite get a charge, so I suggested normal tag. I might have pushed her too hard and she tried to reach out and grab me so she wouldn’t fall, and well.” Sprig spread out his arms, gesturing to his now ruined jacket, and scratched chest.
HopPop brushed his hands across the four angry red lines earning a hiss from the boy. “Go grab a change of clothes and some ointment. Oh, and sit up top with Anne, I need to talk to yer sister.”
“It’s not her fault!” Sprig protested.
“Now I didn’t say it was, but I just gotta talk to her, now hop to it.” Sprig pulled out a small chest from under his bed, grabbed a few things before hopping up with Anne.
When HopPop could hear a faint conversation between the two, he sat on the floor.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“I hurt Sprig.” Polly's voice was the quietest he’d ever heard it. Even when he yelled at her before she still held some form of confidence in herself.
“Yes, you did.” HopPop nodded, not knowing if Polly could see him.
“I’m dangerous.”
“Now I wouldn’t go that far.” HopPop scratched the top of his head. “You know no matter who you are, you can hurt the people I care about, why when I was about Sprigs age I too challenged my dad for control of the farm. I ended up seriously hurtin’ him.”
“Really? What happened?” Polly’s voice held disbelief, but hopPop took a breath anyway, preparing to tell the story.
“It was the middle of the night, and I was impatient, it was summer and I didn’t like working in the hot sun. I wanted to know why we couldn't just relax during the day and work at night.”
“It’s ‘cause the fireflies and mosquitos and other bugs would be attracted to the light at night.”
“That’s right, but I was young, and a bit hard headed. A lot like you kids. And I refused to wait till morning to fight for the farm.” HopPop took a deep breath and Polly peaked her head out from under the bed.
HopPop patted the floor next to him, offering her a seat. She didn’t move. “Anyway, It was dark so we lit some torches, Pa kept trying to tell me to wait, he was getting antsy. At the time I thought it was ‘cause he knew I would win. I was a fool.”
“He, he didn’t..”Polly left the question hanging in the air.
“No, he didn’t die that night. But he got real hurt. Lost control of his left arm, coud hardly lift a mug after the mosquito pierced it.”
“I’m sorry HopPop.”
“You don’t gotta apologize to me. It’s in the past, my dad, never even asked for an apology either, sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way.”
“That actions have consequences.” Polly finished looking down at the floor.
“No, that accidents happen, and instead of looking for someone to blame, even yourself, you need to understand that some things are out of your control.”
Polly crawled fully out from under the bed, moving to rest her head on HopPop’s shoulder as he held her.
Their arrival in Newtopia was fun. Anne was happy to see Marcy, who after 58 questions only became more interested in Polly.
“Marcy, please, we need to work on finding a way home.” Anne leaned against a bookshelf as Marcy frantically looked around, occasionally grabbing a book and placing it on the table only to go grab more.
“You don’t understand Anne. There is no explanation. A moon can’t turn a frog into a monster. There’s no logic, no cause and effect, you expect me to believe that in all the time of written word no Frog Newt or Toad has looked at a Blue Moon? I really wanna research this.” Marcy walked by with another stack of books.
“I am RIGHT HERE.” Polly shouted as she was continually ignored.
“Marcy, magic and alchemy are real here, I think a moon turning a frog into a werewolf is pretty believable.” Anne rubbed her eye, of course Marcy would get stuck on her little sister/cousin.
“Technically, Polly can’t be a werewolf, the translation of were is man, so the closest you can get to that is like a froggawolf.”
“Marcy!” Anne threw a hand up.
“I know!” Marcy raised her hands in defense. “It’s really not that cool compared to werewolf, but there wasn’t really an archaic term for frog way back when.” Macy tapped her chin in thought.
“Eh, I’m partial to Pollywolf, you know instead of pollywog.” Marcy nodded at the name considering it for a second.
“Not what I mean Marce, and Polly you're not helping! I mean can we please go charge stones so we can go home.”
“Oh yeah, for sure, let me go saddle up Joe.” Macy walked back out the door of the library, not waiting for Anne to follow.
“Who’s Joe?” Marcy couldn’t stop the sickening smirk from covering her face, and Anne was too late to realize her mistake.
The growth of Polly’s legs was a stressful moment. They couldn’t have come at a better time considering the situation, but at the same time, anytime could have been better considering the situation.
They were large and hairy, like her arms, though they lacked claws. Anne took one look at them and called them to large human men's feet in disgust. Quickly followed by Polly kicking Anne in the chest sending her flying.
It was a difficult change, Polly’s hands, which she had grown accustomed to walking on, barely touched the ground. Anne made an attempt to teach her how apes in her world ran to see if Polly liked that better, but in the end she walked upright like everyone else.
With the former king Andiras defeated it was finally time to say goodbye.
Polly teared up at the sight of Anne “I’m going to miss my exotic buddy so bad.”
“Oh please you’ll love all the attention.”
“That’s true.”
“Take over the world for me?”
“You know it. I’ll tell everyone the tale of the two monsters who saved the world.”
Anne couldn’t help but laugh, “I think you're leaving out some important information.”
“No, I’m telling it my way."
Polly watched as she said goodbye to everyone else, tears still brimming her eyes, until the portal closed behind her.