One morning, Anne and I were helping Hop Pop make a family tree. "You know, Hop Pop, back home, we call this a family tree." I explained. "That's because everyone in your world is crazy." Hop Pop said. "Now where was I, oh yes, Great Aunt Gertrude, she was a masterful dirt tiller, I mean how cool is that?" "Eh." We replied in boredom. "Oh, and you can't forget Second Cousin Alfred." Hop Pop continued. "He was the king!" "A king?" We gasped. "Yeah, the king of single-tiered irrigation systems." Hop Pop replied. Sprig, Polly, and I groaned. "Yup, you lost me." Anne said. "Our ancestors were boring!" Polly exclaimed. "Were they really just all farm frogs?" Sprig asked. "Where are the artists, the poets, the dreamers?" I added. "Just farm frogs?" Hop Pop exclaimed. "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." "Layers, huh?" Anne asked, pointing at a frog on the shrub. "Okay then, what's so special about her?" "Polliana, oh brace yourselves." Hop Pop replied. "She wasn't just any farmer, she was a turnip farmer." Polly groaned. "Well, as much as I'd love to help, not gonna find any of my ancestors in your shrub, so..." Anne said as she sits on the couch playing a game on her phone. "Don't have to be blood to be a Plantar, Anne." Hop Pop explains. "No, but you do have to be a master stacker to get to level 46." Anne replied. "Curse you, sudden death round!" "Anne, this is based on nothing at all, but I'm almost certain that game will rot your brain." Hop Pop said. "Looks like we're out of glue!" "Does that mean we have to stop?" Sprig asked. "Can we do something fun now?" Polly asked. "Can I sleep?" I asked. "No fun until the shrub's done." Hop Pop answered. "Just gonna run to the store real quick and get some more glue, be back in a jiffy." Hop Pop leaves us alone at the house. "Anne, Rowena, you guys are lucky you're outsiders." Polly comments. "Our family history is weak!" "They didn't do anything weird, or different, or fun." Sprig added, hopping over to the fireplace. "Even this painting is making me feel depressed." Sprig leans on the painting, but it turns out he revealed a secret passage. "What the?" I asked. "Sprig, you broke the house!" Polly exclaimed. "Whoa!" Anne gasped. "This looks unsafe." "We have to go down there!" I added. "There could be treasure." Sprig said. "Or dead bodies." Polly added. "Let's do it!"

Anne and I each grabbed a lantern and Sprig and Polly followed us downstairs, but the entrance closed behind us. "Did we just get locked in here?" Sprig asked. Anne and Sprig ran to the closed entrance to try and open in, but it would not budge. "C'mon, let's just find another way out you babies." Polly suggested. We walked into a room that had some cool stuff inside, but a way out wasn't one of them. "All of this was under your house?" Anne asked Sprig and Polly. "This place is amazing!" Sprig exclaimed. "Why do you think the entrance was hidden like that?" I asked. "To keep it a secret, obviously." Sprig replied. "Who wouldn't want to steal this stuff." "I don't wanna steal this stuff." Anne answered. "It says here that this place belonged to Great Uncle Skip Plantar." Sprig reads on a document. "He was a farmer and a brilliant scientist, he experimented with all kinds of stuff." "This is wild." I said. "I wanna know more, like what does this do?" Sprig asked as he pulled a lever, which opened a gate. Coming out of the gate was a monster that was made from a pumpkin. "Maybe it's harmless." Sprig questioned. It immediately growled at us, which was a sign that it wanted to eat us.

We found a table to hide from the monster. "What do we do?" I panicked. "This abomination must be destroyed." Polly replied. "Hold on a minute." Sprig interrupted. "There may be another way." Sprig walked away from the table. "Dude, what are you doing?" Anne asked. "Yeah, that pumpkin will squash you!" Polly exclaimed. Sprig walked up to the monster and started talking to it like he was training a puppy. The monster calmed down surprisingly to Sprig's method. "I can't believe that actually worked." I said in shock. "What is happening?" Anne asked in confusion. Out of nowhere, Sprig attacks the monster and puts it back into the gate. "Dude, that was ice cold." Polly said. "Love is the cruelest weapon." Sprig smiled. "Agreed." I replied. "Now let's get outta here before something else happens." Suddenly, the ground below us starts to collapse as we fell down farther into the passage.

We fell in this room covered with mostly gold. "You guys okay?" Anne groaned. "Yeah." We replied. The room we were in now had a whole wall full of weapons. "This is heaven!" Polly gasps. "This is the same Polliana from Hop Pop's shrub, she wasn't just a turnip farmer, she was a turned up warrior!" "Check it out, I found her diary." Sprig announced. "The Bogwater Wars of '48." I read. "The Western Toad Invasion of '53." "Man, she was in a lot of battles." Anne said. "She was the coolest, most terrifying Plantar ever!" Polly exclaimed. "Like me!" "Wow, we sure are learning a lot." Sprig added. "I'd like to learn more, like what does this do." Sprig pulled another lever, this time activating many suits of armor and other death traps. "Would you please stop pulling levers?" I asked Sprig. "That's frog abuse!" "Levers are for pulling, Rowena!" Sprig snapped. "Why is there a death trap here anyway?" "It says here that this is Polliana's training simulator." Anne reads from the diary. "Okay, how do we turn it off?" I asked. "The shut off switch is by the exit on the other side." Anne replied. "Okay, we can do this." Sprig said. Out of nowhere, Polly grabs one of the weapons and attacks the suits of armor. "Well, that was intense." Anne commented. "So, you guys wanna do it again?" Polly asked. We nodded as we grabbed her and walked into a room.

We walked into what looked like a secret library. "Can you believe it?" Polly asked. Another mysterious hidden chamber." "Cool, this place is filled with games and puzzles." Anne said. "Let's see if we can find which Plantar this stuff belonged to." I grabbed one of the books and found an interesting page. "No way, Emma the Newt, honorary Plantar?" I read. "She traveled all over the place, collected all this cool stuff, and settled with the Plantar's, she wasn't even a frog." "So cool." Sprig complimented. "I guess even outsiders like us can be a Plantar." Anne added. "Oh, guys, looks like you've solved the puzzle of your own heart." Sprig cried. "Hey, how about we solve the puzzle of getting the heck out of here!" "Oh, we think the exit is that way." I pointed to a door with some weird symbols. Sprig tried opening the door, but he failed. "Well, it's locked." Sprig grunted. "Maybe I can smash it." Polly suggested as she hits the door with her weapon, but realized it was indestructible. "Well that didn't work." "We're gonna die down here!" Sprig added. "Wait a second." Anne said as she pulled out her phone. "Guys, this isn't just a door, it's a puzzle!" "You mean like that game you've been playing for weeks?" I asked. Anne nodded as she walked up to the door to try and solve the puzzle. "I did it!" She cheered when suddenly, another death trap is activated. "Anne, what did you do?" Polly asked. "Oh, no, I know what this is." Anne panicked. "It's the sudden death round." Anne takes a deep breath and focused on the puzzle. "At least Sprig didn't pull another lever." I stated. "Agreed." Polly replied. "Anne, no pressure, but we're gonna die." Anne solved the puzzle just in time. "Woohoo!" Anne exclaimed. "Take that, Hop Pop, who's brain is rotten now sucka?" Sprig pushes us all out the door before we almost died, again. "We had your family history all wrong, guys." Anne said. "The Plantar's weren't just farmers." I added. "Nope, they were twisted." Sprig replied. "Yeah, they were pretty cool." Polly comments. "Now can we finally find a way out of here?" "Yeah, and I think I know how." Sprig answers as he was about to pull another lever, but luckily we carried him away from it.

Moments later, Hop Pop comes home with some glue on his body as we finally found our way out. "Hop Pop, we found those Plantar Family layers you were talking about!" Anne exclaimed. "Found them?" Hop Pop asked. "Kids, I wasn't being literal." "Oh, Hop Pop!" Sprig exclaimed. "There was a moving fireplace!" I shouted. "Secret rooms!" Polly exclaimed. "Crazy science lab." Sprig hollered. "Family heirlooms." Anne added. "Turnip with a face." "Actually proud to be a Plantar!" Polly shouts. "Secret rooms full of Plantar Family heirlooms?" Hop Pop asked. "Why, this is incredible, and most importantly, once again, I was right!" "Our ancestors were the best scientist, warrior, farmers ever!" Polly exclaimed. "Everyone needs to know." Sprig added. "Well, I wanna see these rooms, too!" Hop Pop exclaimed. "Hold on there, Hop Pop." Anne said. "They're full of traps, and super hard but satisfying puzzles." "Oh, and there was this pumpkin abomination!" I added. "A real affront to nature, Sprig loved it, and then betrayed it." "No offense, but I'm not sure you could handle it, Hop Pop." Polly comments. "You have no idea what I can or can't handle." Hop Pop replied. "What do you say, Loggle, up for another adventure?" To my surprise, Loggle was glued to Hop Pop's back. "Absolutely... not!" Loggle replied. "Hop Pop, no!" Anne shouted. "Should we go help them?" Sprig asked as they both started screaming. "Yeah, probably." Polly replied. "Let's get this over with." I said. "Let's adopt that pumpkin monster!" Sprig added as we walked into the passage to help them out.