Amphibia AU: The Amphibian Knights

It was an average morning in Wartwood, as a snail pulling a cart carrying three frogs entered town, pulling to a stop.

This was a family of frogs known as the Plantar family. The oldest was Hopadiah "Hop Pop" Plantar, a frog who loved to farm. He literally owns one of the most famous farms in Wartwood. He still believed in doing things "the old-fashioned way."

Next, there was Sprig Planter, a young, and yet quite mischievous frog. He was Hop Pop's grandson. His love for action and adventure sometimes got him into trouble, but he always found a way out of it.

Finally, the youngest of the group was Polly Plantar, Sprig's little sister. She was a tiny and adorable pollywog who always wore a yellow bow on her head. But don't let her appearance fool you, though small and adorable, she can pack quite a punch, literally. Her obsession with violence can make her quite scary at times.

Though the Plantar family farm was the most famous farm in Wartwood (technically the only farm in Wartwood), they weren't very popular amongst the other residents.

As the snail entered Wartwood, Hop Pop used a leaf to slow it down.

"Ho. Ho."

He put away the leaf as he turned to his two grandchildren.

"All right, kids. I'm gonna do a little shoppin'. You watch the cart," he said pointing.

Sprig instantly jumped onto the side of the cart, making sure to keep one foot inside

"You got it, Hop Pop. I'll defend this cart with my LIFE," he said whilst beating his chest with his fists like he was Tarzan.

Hop Pop looked over to his grandson confused.

"Sprig, I was talking to Polly."

"What? Polly's a baby."

"YOU'RE A BABY," the young pollywog snapped back.

"Polly's got more responsibility in her little flipper, than you have in your entire body," Hop Pop said with a serious attitude.

"Ridiculous. What makes you think I'm irresponsible," the young frog asked.

"Oh, gee. Let me think. You nearly blew up the farm when helping me cook lunch yesterday, you caused a cow-apiller to come crashing into my bedroom, then you left the lights on, causing fireflies to come crashing into the farm."

"OK. So yesterday was a bad day," Sprig replied nervously.

"Mm-Hmm"

The old frog hopped out the cart and in front of the entrance to a shop.

"Polly, make sure Sprig stays in the cart. Well, how do you do, Mrs. Jonkins."

Sprig sighed as he slumped over the front of the cart.

"Wish there was a way to prove I'm not such a goof-up."

Suddenly, Sprig and Polly were attracted by a commotion. Neither of them could figure out what it was about though.

"Huh. Maybe I can go check that out."

"STOP RIGHT THERE," Polly snapped at her older brother. "Hop Pop said that you had to stay in the cart. YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T TAKE ME!!!"

Sprig grunted, but then got an idea.

"Oh, oh, Polly, look."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of treats.

"Candy!"

He blew a raspberry as he tossed down the treats to his sister.

Polly stared at them for a second.

"BRIBE ACCEPTED," she hollered as she began gobbling up the candy, whilst Sprig went off to investigate.

When he got to the cause of the commotion, he was surprised by what he saw. Wartwood Police were pulling a group of toads by a rope. But not just any toads...

"The Dragon Toads," the young boy said, udderly surprised. The Dragon Toads were a group of nasty toads who came to Wartwood a few months ago with only one goal, to drain Wartwood dry of all it's resources and valuables. They were tough, mean, ruthless monsters who'd do anything for a penny in their pockets.

Nobody could stand a chance to them. Anyone who challenged them would end up dead in a matter of seconds. But to see a few of their members being contained by the police was shocking. Had the police finally took them down? Did they give themselves up?

Sprig hoped to get to the bottom of this, as he hopped over to Toadstool, the mayor of Wartwood.

"Now, I want these toads under constant supervision. At least until someone comes along to bring them to the nearest dungeon." Mayor Toadstool sighed in a way of happiness.

"Isn't it beautiful, Toadie."

"It sure is, sir," a smaller frog replied.

"With these toads out of the way, things can finally get back to the way they were. The people paying me their taxes, and me keeping a big chunk of..."

"Hey, what's going on here?"

Toadstool nearly choked on his own spit, as he focused on getting his posture back up. He turned to see where the voice had come from, only to see a familiar pink frog hopping towards them.

"Why, hello there young Plantar. What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"Aren't those the Dragon Toads," Sprig asked oh so curiously.

"Heh heh, sure are. Caught them last night. They were causing a ruckus at Stumpy's place."

Sprig stared at the group of toads trying to get out of their restraints, thrusting and cussing up a storm.

"How did you manage to capture them?"

Toadstool wanted to lie and say it was all him, but his brain couldn't think of an excuse to make that possible. Plus, many villagers had seen the actions of last night, so it would be useless to anyway. He could be honest, just this one time.

"Well technically, "we" didn't catch them," Toadstool spoke.

"Huh"

"Twas' The Whispering Trio," another voice interrupted. It was One-Eyed Wally.

"We all saw them. Taller than any frog, newt, or toad. These beings appeared a few days ago. They always stick to the shadows, using trees to get around without being seen. They never show their faces though. In fact, they always wear masks that resemble three of the Amphibia's greatest predators, The Red Heron, The Green Mantis, and The Blue Kill-a-Moth."

Sprig stared in awe at the description of these "heros".

"Wow"

Just then, Sprig though of an idea. A dangerous idea.

Sprig thought of a dangerous, stupid, mischievous idea.

An idea to prove to Hop Pop that he was responsible.

He just needed to set the board up.

"You know, if these heros saved us from the Dragon Toads, we should thank them."

The villagers watching the commotion heard what the young frog had said, and muttered sounds of agreement.

"How 'bought we hold a festival in their honor, and invite them to it? Whatcha say Toadstool?"

"Now hold on a second, young frog. We don't even know where to find these 'heros'. How are we gonna track them down?"

"I can track them down. The Plantar family hunting way."

Toadstool thought to himself for a second. He was having doubts about the idea until Toadie spoke up.

"Sir, think about what this will do to your campaign. To actually meet the masked heros, you'll be on headlines everywhere."

That got Toadstool's attention. If their was anything he loved other than money, it was popularity.

Hook. Line. And Sinker.

"Alright then, young Plantar. You find those heros whilst we prepare for the... uhm-the... well, we can think of a name later."

All the frog's cheered as Sprig went back to the cart.

"Polly, guess what?"

"Hmm" the little pollywog's mouth was still filled with candy.

"Last night, a group of masked vigilantes saved the town from the Dragon Toads!"

At the sound of that, Polly was frozen speechless.

"WHAT!?!"

"So the mayor is putting together a festival to thank these heros."

"Cool"

"And guess who's going to track them down to invite them to the festival."

"Who"

"This frog"

"Oh-no. No way."

"Come on Polly, pleeeeeeeeease?"

The young pollywog turned away as she crossed her arms. Only for Sprig to pull out a candy bar and hold it up too her.

"BRIBE EXPANDED," she yelled, snatching the candy bar out of Sprig's hand.

"Let the Hero hunt.. begin!"

"DON'T DIE!"
--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------

The forest was actually kind of peaceful today. At least, that's what Sprig thought as he went running through the woods. The air was as fresh as can be, the sky bluer than blue, and the sounds were just mesmerizing.

However, after a while of searching, with no trail, he was dumb founded. He thought about giving up.

No Sprig, what would your ancestors think.

He looked around for a clue, and for a while, found nothing. Until he saw something jabbed into a tree. It looked like the butt of an arrow.

"Ah-hah," he replied as he hopped into a branch. "This looks like the righ-oh"

The tip of the arrow was trapped inside the branch, as a single streak of a crimson red liquid dripped out of the crack.

"Huh, I wonder what this is," he said as he managed to use his finger to collect some. Judging by the way it reacted, he could tell it was from last night. He tasted it and nearly gagged as he noticed the liquid had a strong taste, as well as a coppery smell.

"Yep, that's blood, but from what?"

It didn't match any creature he ever came into contact with, and as far as he knew trees don't bleed.

Maybe, it belonged to one of the heros. He hopped onto the ground next to the tree, only to find a disturbance in the usual pattern of the ground. Something fell out of the tree when the arrow hit it, but where is it now.

He looked over and finally saw something he could actually use, a couple of footprints.

"Bingo"

He touched the ground as he noticed a couple of tiny blood puddles next to the footprints.

"So, one of them was wounded as they were trying to leave Wartwood, causing them to fall out of the tree. And judging by this, the others carried the wounded one to... where?"

He proceeded to follow the trail until he started to smell smoke. It was a small amount, like a...

"Campfire"

He followed the smell, and sure enough, it matched up with the trail of footprints. Finally, he came upon some buses, and on the other side was a cave.

It was a small cave, but unlike other caves, this one had a cloth on the entrance. The cave also had bit's and pieces of woodwork here and there, as if someone was trying to make a poorly designed weather proof system. In front of the cave was the settings of a camp.

As Sprig stepped closer to the cave, he noticed a sign that read as follows:

DO NOT ENTER!!!

The letters were in a color scheme that just didn't match up. He looked on the ground and saw cylinder shaped objects.

"These look like marker caps, but I've never seen these kinds of markers before."

At that moment there was the sound of a loud "Ow" coming from inside the cave. It sounded like a girl's voice.

"Come on Anne, stop fighting me!"

Another voice, but different than the last one! And who was this Anne person?

Only one way to find out, Sprig thought as he entered the cave.

Thanks to his size, his entrance went unnoticeable by who ever was inside. The second he entered, he noticed three masks hanging on the wall.

The Red Heron, The Green Mantis, and The Blue Kill-a-Moth, he remembered Wally saying.

There was a light emitting on the wall, revealing shadows of creatures he didn't recognized.

He ducked behind a pile of rocks, and turned to see what was the commotion. He was frozen in awe by what he saw.

In the room were three creatures that Sprig had never seen before. They were tall, with long limbs, and not a single bit of slime on them. They seemed to have one extra finger on each hand, as well as a single bump on the middle of their faces.

One of them was standing over another one lying on a makeshift bed. It had what appeared to be blonde hair, as well as a black dot on her face, right under her right eye. It's body appeared to be slightly bulkier than the other's, meaning she was the strongest one of the group.

The one laying on the bed had a slightly darker and browner(not trying to be racist, since I'm literally telling this part of the story through a frog's eyes) skin tone then the other two. It's hair was a really dark brown. It appeared to be in pain the way it was reacting to the blonde one.

The last one, sitting in a corner writing something in a book, seemed to have skin slightly darker than the blonde one, but not as dark as the second one (again, no racism trying to be applied here[I hate racism and want everyone treated equally no matter what]). It's hair color was similar to that of a ravin, as it had some sort of green hairpin in it on the left.

"I told you Sasha, I'm fine," replied the one on the bed.

So the blonde's name is Sasha, thought Sprig. And obviously the one on the bed is this Anne person.

He looked to the one in the corner.

Then who is that one.

"Uh no, your not. If you hadn't stopped to catch your breath, that arrow wouldn't have hit you."

"So you wanted me to die of exhaustion?"

"I'm sure Sasha didn't mean that, Anna-Banana," replied the dark haired girl. "She's just worried about you."

"Yeah, well, I'm fine. Tell her Marcy."

Marcy, so that was her name.

"Well, the arrow only grazed your side, so technically your fine."

Anne stuck her tongue out at Sasha.

"But, at the same time, if that wound isn't treated, it could get infected, and you could get much worse. So Sash has a right to worry."

Sasha stuck her tongue out at Anne.

Sprig noticed how there tongues were a lot smaller than than his. He leaned forward to try and get a closer look, however he accidentally knocked over a few small rocks on the pile. He quickly jumped behind another, larger rock.

"What was that," Sasha asked, reaching for one of her swords.

Sprig held his breath, hoping the creature didn't notice him. Luckily for him, a fly proceeded to fly out from the pile of rocks.

"It's just a fly Sasha," replied Anne, as she put on what appeared to be a light blue tank-top.

"A small fly, knocking down a pile of rocks. That just doesn't make any sense."

"Does anything here make sense?"

Sasha opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when she realized Anne had a point. But then she noticed Anne grabbing her tunic.

"Hey, I'm not done with your wound!"

"I told you Sasha, it'll be alright for now. Plus, we've been through things much worse than this, haven't we?"

Sasha sighed, realizing that Anne, once again had a point.

"Your right. It's just, I don't want to lose you before we have the chance to get home."

Anne grabbed Sasha's chin as she looked into her eyes.

"It's okay, my love. You have the right to be worried. At least know that I am moved by your concern to keep me safe. It's sweet, and just a tad bit, romantic."

Sasha chuckled to herself.

"You are hard to argue with, you know that?"

Anne leaned closer to Sasha's face.

"That's the point," she replied right before embracing in a kiss with Sasha. Marcy watched them do so and began to pout.

"Oh, come on. How come you two get to have all the fun?"

Sasha walked over to Marcy.

"Awwww, does Mar-Mar want a kiss to make her feel better," Sasha said.

Marcy continued to pout for a few seconds before sighing.

"Yes, please."

And with that, Sasha and Marcy embraced a kiss, while Anne took a selfie of them doing so in the background of her doing a peace symbol as well as puckering her lips.

"Wow," Sprig said, right as a fly surprisingly flew straight into his throat. He gagged and coughed, attracting the three girls' attention.

"Okay, WHO'S THERE," Sasha responded, sword in hand.

Time to go, thought the tiny frog, as he attempted to make a run for it.

He didn't get far however, as he tripped over a container of arrows.

"THERE!!!"

"Oh, frog"

And within a few seconds, the tip of a blade was pointed at his throat, as Sasha had pinned the defenseless frog against the wall. Marcy hid behind Anne, as she held her close.

"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU! AND HOW'D YOU FIND US?"

Sprig gulped. He wasn't sure how'd he get out of this one.