This morning, I helped Anne make breakfast. We introduced the Plantar's to omelets. "What do you call these again?" Polly asked. "Omelets." Anne replied. "Very popular where we're from." I added. "We'll see about that." Hop Pop said as he took a bite and fell in love. "Holy crabapples, until today, I've been eating garbage!" Polly was also amazed with our dish. "I've seen the future, and it's omelets." Polly whispered as Sprig comes running from upstairs, screaming, but calms down after seeing the omelets. "Oh, those look good." Sprig said. "Omelets." Hop Pop replied. "Huh." Sprig began to scream again. "It's happening!" "What's happening?" I asked. "Are you sure it's happening?" Hop Pop added. "Dead sure." Sprig replied dramatically. "What's happening?" I repeated. "Is this a "we gotta go now" situation, or can I finish eating?" Anne added. "Take it to go, Anne, cause we gotta sound the alarm." Sprig said. "Okay, I just gotta separate the stuff so it retains the flavor and doesn't get soggy." Anne explains as they rushed us out the door.

Sprig sounded an alarm. It's crazy how many sounds he can make come out of his mouth. He led us to the town. Hop Pop was out of breath from carrying Sprig to town. "Everyone, listen up, today is the third morning in a row where the temperature dipped below the frog line, which means Hiberday is almost upon us." Sprig explains. "Hiberday?" I asked. "Once a year, the temperature drops so low that it sends everyone into instant hibernation." Hop Pop replied. "Frozen in place until they thaw out the next day, and when we thaw, we feel refreshed, rejuvenated, virile." "Hey, that's pretty cool." Anne said. "Well, it's not!" Hop Pop snapped. "Every year, one townsperson disappears, never to be seen again." "And there's the frog abuse part." I commented. "It's serious, Rowena, look around you." Polly said as we looked around to see many frogs in tears saying goodbye to each other, even Mayor Toadstool was crying, I didn't think that was possible. "Not so fast!" We shouted in unison. The frogs all look at us confused. "There will not be any goodbyes this year, because this year, Wartwood has us." Anne explains. They were still confused. "We're warm-blooded." "That's gross, Anne." Sprig said. "It means neither of us will freeze, we can be your protectors." I explained. "And under our watch, no one will disappear again!" The crowd cheered for us. Why did I agree to this? I don't even like snow. "Wow, you've gone from town beasts to town protectors." Sprig said. "Alright, Hiberday isn't until tomorrow, so everybody meet back here tonight." Hop Pop explains. "Then Anne and Rowena can guard all of us." The townsfolk left to get prepared for Hiberday. "Girls, are you sure about this?" Hop Pop asked. "Looking after the whole town is a lot of responsibility." "We totally got this." Anne replied. "I feel like our time here has all been leading up to this moment, it's like fate and karma combined into one, all my senses feel heightened, it's like the whole world has slowed down and we're totally aware of everything that is around us, you ever feel like that, guys?" No response came from them. They were already frozen. "This can't be good." I said as snow came falling down rapidly. "Hiberday must've come early, and everybody is all over the place right now!" "How are we gonna get them back to..." Anne panicked as she picked up Sprig, who was surprisingly very lightweight. "Oh, this is very light." "And I'm very cold." I shivered.

I helped Anne get the frogs to the town square. I had my hoodie in my bag to keep myself warm. "Snow, why did it have to be snow?" I groaned. According to myself, snow is so cold, like Sasha, but so much warmer. "Welp, that's everyone, huh, that was surprisingly easy." Anne said. "Now all we have to do is watch them." We were the only ones that can't freeze like the frogs. Maybe this is the time to tell Anne my true feelings for her. I had butterflies in my stomach as I got closer to her. Time to make a move. "So, how about this weather we're having?" I asked. This might be harder than I thought. "I haven't been in snowy weather since who knows how long." Anne replied. "Oh, that's cool." I said. "Well, we're both from California, so we don't get snow, but I have traveled to Colorado to visit my mom's family." Anne smiled. "I'm glad we both got zapped here together." "Me too." I replied. "Also, I'm bored." "Well, bored protectors are bad protectors, so we're gonna need to thaw someone out." Anne explains. "Sprig." I said. "You just read my mind." Anne joked as I grabbed Sprig and we left.

Anne and I started a fire at the house to thaw Sprig out. I was shivering so much from the cold weather. Anne saw me and gave me a warm blanket. I smiled and we continued with Sprig. "This is harder than I expected." Anne said. "Thaw already, Sprig." I added as Sprig thawed from the ice, but this wasn't the same Sprig we know and love, he was confused. He also reminded me of my dad every other Saturday night. "Where am I, what's going on?" Sprig asked confused. "Sprig!" Anne exclaimed. "Boy are we glad to see you, buddy, uh, you okay, dude?" "I is awake, yes?" Sprig asked. We nodded. "Let's thaw out the others." Sprig said. "I'm thinking we should let nature run it's course, you frogs don't seem to do well in the cold." I explained. Sprig was just acting like he just came out of wisdom teeth surgery. "But since you're already awake, let's go have some fun, we've got the whole town to ourselves." "Let's do it!" Sprig exclaimed.

We decided to take Sprig to play in the snow. I took a bunch of pictures of the things we did. "Alright, enough, we had our fun." Anne said. "We should do a head count." I suggested. I checked the list to see everyone was there, except for Polly. "Anne, Sprig, Polly's gone!" I yelled. "No, what kind of protectors are we?" Anne cried. "Is something wrong with Polly?" Sprig asked. "Yes, Sprig, she's gone!" I exclaimed. "This is all our fault, we got to get her back." "Alright, is something wrong with Polly?" Sprig repeated.

We walked into the woods to search for Polly. "Never tracked anything in snow before." Sprig said as he climbed into a tree and fell into the snow. "Just hang in there, Sprig, you can go back to hibernating as soon as we find Polly." Anne explains. Sprig sniffed his nose. "I smell a Polly." Sprig commented. "Polly's in that creepy cave." "Of course she is." I groaned. We walked into the cave to search more. "You know, no matter how long we're in this world, I don't think we'll ever get used to the piles of bones just lying around." "Hey, that icicle looks just like Polly." Sprig said. "Polly!" Anne exclaimed. "How'd she get up there?" Sprig asked. "Is she magic?" Suddenly, the ground started shaking. "What was that?" Anne asked. All of a sudden, a polar bear like creature popped out of the snow making us jump. "Maybe we can ask this lady, excuse me, miss..." Sprig said as Anne grabbed him and we hid from the monster. "That's what's been taking the frogs?" I asked. "We'll keep it busy, you go get Polly." Anne added. We wrestled the monster for a while, but Sprig brought attention to himself. "Sprig, look out!" We shouted. In the distance, I heard squeaking noises coming from a nest, they were babies. The monster saw me around the nest and growled at me. "She's a mother." I said. "You didn't kidnap Polly just to feed yourself, and if we take her, you'll all starve." Anne had an idea. She grabbed her omelet from this morning and gave it to the monster and her babies. After that, we grabbed Sprig and Polly and left the cave.

We camped out in the town square to wait for the other frogs to thaw. The frogs began to cheer for us as we were the greatest town protectors of Wartwood. "Hold it, we were terrible town protectors, we both slacked off instead of watching you guys, we unfroze Sprig when we got bored, and worst of all, Polly almost got eaten by a giant weasel." Anne explains. "Say what?" Polly exclaimed. "We're no town protectors." I sighed. "We're just irresponsible kids." "Girls, you admitting that means you are more responsible than you think." Hop Pop explains. "Really?" Anne asked. "Yeah, if you hadn't fessed up, we never would've known anything happened." Hop Pop replied. "You two may not be perfect, but you proved that we can depend on you, and this is the first year that no one has disappeared!" "All because of you." Polly added as the crowd cheered for us more. "Hey everyone, check out these funny photos we took!" Sprig announced with my phone, showing the entire town what we did. "Did you use our frozen bodies as bowling pins?" Hop Pop asked. Our lips were sealed.