Skylar's P.O.V

The day of the banquet had arrived and Brenton was working overtime to get all of the food ready. Turns out that tonight is Wartwood's Frog of the Year party which is pretty much just the most outstanding citizen award, good thing is that it means the whole town will be in one place which just makes this whole thing that much easier.

Right now I'm just strolling around the tower, lending a hand if I can but mainly just trying to think. I still feel weird about the whole thing. I mean, someone, frog or not was wrong and I know that. I guess I'm thinking about this with the trolley dilemma, would I rather run over 1 stranger or 1 friend and I think the obvious answer is one stranger, Sasha does too and I trust Sasha so that's what we're gonna do.

'Commander Skylar, commander Sasha was looking for you' the voice of a toad guard said.

'Oh ok, where is she?' I ask.

'She's in the courtyard, nearly everyone is ready to move out to Wartwood'

'Alright thanks, I'll head down there now'

The toad salutes and then marches back down the hall. I sigh and slowly follow after him.

———————————————————

'There you are Skylar' Sasha calls out to me as I arrive in the courtyard.

'Yeah I'm here, so are we ready to head out?'

'Yes. The banquet is completely ready and a large amount of the toads are all ready to march with us to Wartwood' Grime explains.

'Wait we're not gonna have to walk all the way there are we?' Sasha asks.

'No you two will take a carriage, I'll be leading the toads and we have a barge to carry the citizens back here' Grime says.

'The carriage taking me and Sash wouldn't happen to be pulled by a snail would it?' I sheepishly ask.

'Of course not, spiders are much faster. We leave in a few minutes, be ready' Grime says before walking off.

I sigh as I follow Sasha to the carriage.

'I'm surprised you're not putting up more of a fight about the spider' Sasha comments as we walk to the carriage.

'I guess that my desire to get to Anne outweighs my fear of spiders' I say. 'But that doesn't make seeing a spider double my size any less scary' I say while standing frozen in front of the carriage.

'I'm sure you'll be fine, now come on' Sasha says as she drags me on board.

———————————————————

'Now who in the world are you two? And why is the entire toad army with you?' a toad asks and from the research I'd done I assumed he was the mayor.

'Relax toad man, we're just here looking for a friend of ours' Sasha responds.

'Yeah, would someone named Anne who looks kinda like us happen to be here?' I eagerly ask.

'Well yes, Toadie go get Anne. You lot better not be up to any funny business' He says before heading back to the town.

'I'm surprised he didn't question the whole toad army part more'

After a few minutes I notice someone looking at us, upon closer inspection I noticed who it was.

'ANNE!' I call out, completely overjoyed.

'Skylar! Sasha!' She calls back.

The three of us all run to each other and spin around in a hug.

'Oh my gosh I can't believe that it's you'

We eventually break from the hug.

'Oh my gosh, you're here too, I-I wasn't sure. I woke up all alone, Is Marcy with you? Where've you been? I missed you so much!'

'We missed you too' I say, hugging her again.

'We'll fill you in later, for now we're just glad we found you. We all came as soon as we heard'

'We all?'

'Yup, just us and some friends of ours' Sasha gestures to the toads right before they march into the town.

'Sasha, Sky, the toads! I gotta go help my-'

'Chill out Anne, they're with us' I cut in, moving in front of her and blocking her path.

'Wait what?'

'ANNE, ANNE, ANNEANNEANNE!' A small frog boy runs up to us 'Toads! They're everywhere. We barely slipped out while the guards were-'

'Holy toot! More Anne's!' A pollywog cuts him off.

'Oh guys, meet my besties from back home, Sasha and Skylar!' Anne introduces.

'Hey'

'Hey guys'

'Girls, meet the Plantars, this is Hop Pop, Sprig and Polly'

The small frog apparently named Sprig hops forward. 'Hey I'm Anne's bestie too, I guess that makes me your bestie in law' he laughs.

I giggle at his joke and was going to add onto it but Sasha spoke first.

'Does it?' She responds, clearly not seeing the humour in his statement.

Sprig was taken aback by her comment but Hop Pop told him to walk it off. It only now occurred to me that this was Hop Pop and Anne seemed close with him... oh no.

'Yes hi nice to meet ya, now can someone please tell me why there's a toad army invading Wartwood!?'

'You're Hop Pop? Thought you'd be taller. Relax, we're not invading anything. C'mon Anne, you too frogs. We don't wanna keep Grime waiting'

'Captain Grime!?' Hop Pop says shocked.

'The cruelest toad soldier of all time?' Sprig adds on.

'Here?' Polly asks as well.

'Eh, he's not so bad once you get used to him' I explain.

'Yeah, now hurry up nerds' Sasha says.

———————————————————

'Frogs of Wartwood! We toads have come here to... invite you to a banquet! The moment we heard that Anne was here we rushed over to reunite these three friends and hold a celebration' Grime announces.

I pull both Anne and Sasha into a shoulder hug and the whole town awws. Most of the town at least, Hop Pop questioned Grime's claim.

'Yes, despite my rough exterior, I really am just an old sof-ty'

Sasha gets his attention and motions for him to smile, but his 'smile' was enough to make a young frog cry. Luckily Sasha cut in.

'So what do ya say Wartwood? You ready to party back at the tower?' Sasha was met with complete silence.

'What does Anne think?' An old frog asks.

Anne looks at me and I give her a smile.

'Sasha and Skylar have been my friends since kindergarten, if they say it's fine, it's fine'

'Woo, all aboard the party barge!'

All of the frogs begin to board the barge that we brought and Anne was about to join them but me and Sash pulled her aside.

'Psst Anne, you're with us'

'Wow cool, hey mind if the Plantars come along?'

'Of course we don't mind, the more the merrier' I say. The Plantars then ran off into the carriage.

'Ha, they're fun. Wait Skylar, you did notice that that carriage is pulled by a giant spider right?' Anne asks.

'Don't remind her' Sasha says and then pulls my on board.

———————————————————

'So, here we are' I gesture to the tower.

'Ominous' Anne comments.

'Oh Percy' Sasha calls out.

'Yes commander?' One of my favourite toads answers.

'We're gonna give Anne a quick tour, escort these frogs to the banquet hall' Sasha explains.

'Hey I wanna go on the tour too!' Sprig says.

'Oh me three' Polly says as well.

'Now c'mon kids, give Anne and her friends a chance to catch up' Hop Pop says.

'Don't worry I'll find you guys later, go have fun in there'

'Uuurrrggg, we'll try' Sprig grumbles as he follows Percy inside.

'You uh sure seem close with those three' I nervously say.

'Yeah what happened to ew frogs are the worst' Sasha asks.

'They're actually pretty great once you get to know them, yeah I've been living in their basement since I got here'

'A basement? Yuck' Sasha says.

'Follow us, we're gonna show you something awesome' I say as I drag Anne along.

'This is where we've been living' Sasha shows off.

'Hoopa da boopa'

'Yo Brenton!' I call out for the chef.

'Oui commanders?'

'Bring us the usual' Sasha orders.

A small while later a few toads came in with an assortment of foods.

'Pizza, tacos, hamburgers woah!'

'We've also got ketchup' I say.

'It just occurred to me that I've been eating bugs for a month'

'Anything else commanders?'

'Could you run the hot water please, for the shower' I ask.

'SHOWER!?' Anne exclaims with a mouth full of fries.

———————————————————

The three of us were now seated on the couch, drinking hot chocolate.

'Wow guys, this is so surreal, I can't believe you're both really here' Anne says.

'I know right, and once this is over we can finally find a way out of this crummy gross world' Sasha responds.

'Once, what's over?' Anne skeptically asks.

'Ummm, the rebellion' I nervously respond.

'The what now?'

'Of course you don't know about the rebellion, alright We'll explain just... promise not to freak out ok?' I start.

'O-Ok?'

'So you've probably already noticed that the toads in this valley have a job, to rule over the frogs and lately those frogs have been... stepping out of line' I explain.

'Turns out these 'rebels' have been inspired by a certain frog, you might just know him. He stood up to some tax collectors, even ran for mayor against the local toad' Sasha finished with showing Anne a poster of Hop Pop.

Anne literally spit out her drink. 'What! Hop Pop's not a revolutionary!'

'Doesn't really matter, word has traveled like wild fire and the toads really want to make an example out of him' I explain.

'So they're just gonna feed him to that thing' Sasha points to the giant Venus Flytrap outside.

Anne's reaction wasn't the best.

'Alright hear us out Anne. We struck a deal with Grime, we'd help him capture Hop Pop and end the rebellion in exchange for him and his army helping us find a way home. It just seems like the best option'

'The whole banquet idea was surprisingly from Skylar. Now we've got those slimy frogs right where want them. Isn't this great?'

'Uuuuhhhhh, I have to uh, go to the roomrest, I mean restroom. Stay. BRB' Anne rushes out the door.

'Something tells me she didn't take that too well' I sigh.

'Yeah she's totally freaking out' Sasha says as she takes a sip of her drink.

———————————————————

Sasha and I decided to go check on the banquet hall because Anne had yet to return.

'What are all of you toads doing? Just waiting outside' Sasha scolded.

'What are you doing out here? You just went in there' one of the toads says while extremely confused.

'I did not' Sasha protests.

I just roll my eyes at the interaction and move forward, after opening the doors I was met with an abandoned banquet hall. I look down and notice that the sewer hatch had been removed.

'Looks like you lot have been bamboozled. Where's the next closest sewer hatch?'

———————————————————

'What're we waiting for?' One of the toads asks.

'We're waiting for Anne and the frogs to inevitably come out of the sewers so we can catch them again' I explain.

'Finally, I think we made it' I faintly hear Anne's voice and when her head popped up it was met with the weapons of multiple toads.

'Yeah those toads really stink' Sprig adds which really doesn't help their situation. 'Did I say stink? I meant are very handsome' he tries and fails to save it.

Sasha then walked forward. 'Anne, Anne, Anne, very disappointing. Now let's move, Grime's waiting for us'

———————————————————

'Caught these prisoners trying to escape Grime'

'Dude are you crazy'

'Sshh, We're trying to get us home'

'Very impressive you two, always playing Flipwart when everyone else is playing Bogjump'

'What?' Anne's and Sasha ask.

'Well Flipwart and Bogjump are both games, of course one is much more complicated than the other, And, I-'

'He means Chess and Checkers' I explain.

'Oooohhh' the other two day in understanding.

'Thanks Grimesy, what can I say? Just how we do. Up top' Sasha gestures for Grime to high-five her.

'C'mon Sky please, there has to be another way' Anne turns to me.

'But Anne this just makes the most sense, one frog for the chance to go home' I try to reason.

'But I care about the Plantars' she pleads.

'Enough! There is no other way creature. Our very way of life is at stake, I don't expect an outsider like you to understand. Seize the traitor Hopadiah Plantar!'

'NO!' Anne exclaims.

Anne ducks under two toad guards and grabs one of their swords, then proceeds to fend off the toads who were holding Hop Pop. I was shocked and impressed with her fighting skills.

'STAY BACK!'

As the toads hold their weapons to the frogs, the frogs get into fighting stances in an attempt to fight back. I step back to where Sasha was.

'ENOUGH!' Sasha gains the attention of everyone. 'Anne, what're you doing? Are you really gonna risk your life for these talking frogs? We don't even belong here, don't you wanna get back home? See your family?'

'Yeah but-'

'Then put your sword down, now. End. Of. Discussion'

Anne does as she says and lowers her sword. This isn't right, how Sasha's ordering Anne. It's been like this for years, why am I only noticing how terrible this is now? All of a sudden Sasha was hit in the face with a ball of mud and everyone including myself gasped in shock.

'For someone who's Anne's best friend you sure don't know here very well, she's brave, she's smart and most of all she's not gonna be pushed around by a bully like you!' Sprig defended.

'I think I've had enough of you, squeaky toy' Sasha says as she goes to attack him before having her sword blocked by Anne. 'Anne! What are you doing?!'

'Something I shoulda done a long time ago. Standing up to you!'

Grime then started laughing from next to me.

'What're you laughing at?' Sasha asks, clearly annoyed.

'Looks like you've got a rebellious seed of your own. You've given me plenty of advise, now let me give you some. Stamp this out, make her yield, fail and nothing will ever be the same'

'Not gonna happen'

'This should be fun. MY FRIENDS! INSTEAD OF A MESSY FREE FOR ALL I HAVE A SPLENDID IDEA! HOW ABOUT WE SETTLE THIS, THE TOAD FASHIONED WAY!' Toads circled around Anne and Sasha, blocking either of them from leaving. 'TRIAL BY COMBAT! If your champion wins, you all go home, no harm no foul. But if our champion wins well... baby's hungry'

Anne and Sasha start to get ready to fight but all I can do is just stand there. I don't know what to do. It's different than when Sasha was fighting all the toads, I can't defend Sasha without hurting my best friend and I can't defend Anne without hurting my sister. This is just scary.

'BEGIN!'

Sasha attacks first, running straight at Anne. Luckily Anne was able to block the attack and then continue to defend against even more. Both of their swords are interlocked and I know they're talking to each other but I can't hear what they're saying. Anne managed to knock Sasha's sword out of her grasp but that victory was short lived due to the fact that Sasha had a dagger as well. After a few more clashes of their swords Sasha throws her he cloak over Anne and then kicked out her legs, causing her to fall. Anne quickly pulled the cloak off of her face but was met with the end of Sasha's sword.

'They're just slimy little frogs Anne, they don't matter!' Sasha says.

That's wrong, those 'slimy little frogs' clearly mean a lot to Anne.

'They're not just frogs... THEY'RE MY FRIENDS!' Anne grabs her sword and strikes upwards, disarming Sasha but also scaring her face.

Ever frog cheered at Anne's victory.

'It's over Sash, you're not gonna push me around anymore. So how about it big guy? We're free right?'

'Yeah... I don't think so' Grime says before using his tongue to get a hold of Hop Pop.

'WHAT! GRIME YOU SAID THAT THEY'D BE FREE!' I yell at the toad, extremely annoyed by his lie.

'We can't just let them leave! This ends now'

Suddenly the entire tower begins to shake and rumble as explosions are heard below.

'Wally what'd you do!?' Anne yells at a blue frog.

'What I thought we agreed, wait could you not tell I was winking? Oh curse you one eye!'

The whole tower started to crumble and every toad and frog was panicking. Grime was trying to order the toads but they were too scared to listen. The rock Grime was standing on fell off the edge taking him with it, Hop Pop almost fell as well but I quickly ran and grabbed him.

'Gotcha buddy' I say as I pull him up.

'Why are you helping me?'

'You mean a lot to Anne and Anne means a lot to me. Now come on we need to get everyone off the roof!'

'Alright, c'mon everyone! Get off the roof quick' Hop Pop orders as we hold the hatch open.

'Anne!'

'Sasha!'

I turn and see Sasha hanging over the edge with Anne holding her up. Immediately I rush over, grabbing Anne's legs just before they slip.

'Hold on you two' I grunt, using all my strength to hold the two of them up.

I could feel my own feet sliding and just as my feet lost all grip I felt a pair of hands grab onto them, holding me up.

'Don't worry, I got yoooooooou' Sprig yells as the weight proves too much for him and he starts to fall.

'Hey hey, look at me look at me, everything's gonna be totally fine. Just. Hang. On'

'We got you Anne, no matter what' I hear Hop Pop behind me.

'Uh guys? I think we have a situation!' Polly yells as I hear the tower start to crack even more.

'Hey Anne, maybe you're both better off without me...'

'NOOOO!'

'SASHA!'

She let go...

She was falling...

Grime caught her. Thank frog Grime caught her.

Once we were all pulled back up I got as far away from the edge as possible and I could feel my eyes stinging with tears. Anne was there near the edge, just as, if not more shaken up than I was. This whole thing ended terribly.

'Sky?' I look up to Anne. 'Are you ok?' She asks.

I stand up and hug her and I couldn't stop the tears from coming.

'I'm so sorry' I cry.

'It's ok, everything's going to be ok, I'm just glad you're safe' she responds and I could tell that she was crying too.

———————————————————

I had gone back to Wartwood with Anne and the Plantars and was currently sitting near the edge of town. I had found a map and I was trying to narrow down where the toads would have gone so that I might be able to find them, and Sasha.

'Yo Sky! You out here?' I hear Anne's voice. I turn and see her head poke out of a bush. 'There you are, what're you doing all the way out here?'

I sigh and show her the map. 'I'm trying to figure out where the toads could have gone so I can follow them'

'Wait you're leaving!?' She asks shocked.

'Yeah... I don't feel right being with the Plantars, especially after what almost happened to Hop Pop' I sigh.

'Please Skylar, I just got you back, don't go'

'I dunno'

Anne sits next to me. 'Well I do know, you're my best friend. If you leave then your practically making your worst fear come true, if you leave, you'll be alone'

'I- I hadn't thought about that...'

'Then think about this, me and the Plantars are planning on leaving the valley to look for answers about a way home. Stay with us, at least for a while and if you still don't feel right about being around the Plantars then I guess that you can leave. But please stay, for me'

'Yeah, I like that idea, I do really wanna stay with you'

'Then stay'

I smile at my best friend and then remember something. I reach to my side and pull out my backpack.