Skylar's P.O.V

Rain poured extremely heavily throughout the forest path we were driving down. Hop Pop and Anne were sitting atop the Fwagon, driving through the treacherous conditions. Me, Sprig and Polly weren't relaxing though, we were all running around like headless chickens trying to put buckets and boxes under the leaks in the roof. I guess we didn't repair the Fwagon as well as we thought we did.

'How are there this many leaks?' Sprig asks, balancing a bucket on each limb.

'Doesn't matter, just don't let anything get wet!' I yell as I run around placing buckets over every inch of the floor.

I try to hop in the small amounts of floor that weren't covered in towels or buckets. I jump around and feel my foot get caught under a towel. Before I can stop myself I'm already headed straight for the floor. But it's not the floor that I fall on top of, I accidentally land on Sprig.

'Skylar c'mon!' Sprig complains as I get off of him.

'Sorry, sorry, my bad' I groan rubbing my head.

'Now the water from the buckets is everywhere! Thanks Sky!'

'Hey I said I was sorry!' I defended. 'No need to be a jerk about it' I mumble under my breath, glaring at the small frog boy.

Sprig glares back at me until we feel the Fwagon come to a stop. Anne and Hop Pop come down and are both completely soaked.

'Had to pull into this cave we saw, storm was getting to be too much' Hop Pop explains.

'How'd everything down here get so wet?' Anne asked as I hand her a towel and help her dry off.

'The roof was leaking a ton and then Sky knocked over all the buckets we'd set up' Sprig says.

'Oh c'mon dude really'

'Never mind that, we need to dry off and get a fire going or we're all gonna freeze' Hop Pop says. 'Anne and Polly, you two search the Fwagon for something to start a fire with. Sprig and Skylar, you guys go check out how big this cave is, don't go too far I just want a rough estimate' Hop Pop orders.

'On it HP'

'Sure thing Hop Pop'

'Got it'

'Ok'

We all went off to do our separate jobs. Sprig and I walked a little deeper into the cave and saw that it continued to lead out into multiple tunnels.

'Wow this cave is massive!' Sprig comments.

'Sure is' I reply.

A thunder strike louder than the others before it struck, causing the cave to shake.

'That's probably fine' I comment when the rumbling stopped.

A few more seconds passed before another monstrous roar was heard from outside followed by the walls of the tunnel violently shaking. This time it didn't stop, rocks began to fall from the ceiling as the shaking continued. A significantly larger rock was about about to fall onto Sprig so I quickly pulled him towards me and shielded him with my body and held my shield above my head. A minute or so passed before the cave in had finally ended. I backed away from Sprig a bit and looked down at him.

'You ok?' I ask.

'Yeah, thanks to you' he smiles.

'No prob bob' I sighed as I stood up and brushed the dirt off my knees.

I look around and see that the entrance to the tunnel was blocked off by rubble and I couldn't see Anne or any of the other Plantars.

'Oh no! ANNE! POLLY! HOP POP!' Sprig started to try and move the rocks away.

'SPRIG! SKYLAR! ARE YOU OK? WHERE ARE YOU?' I hear Anne's frantic voice from the other side of the rock wall.

'WE'RE OK! BUT THERE'S NO WAY WE CAN GET THROUGH THIS RUBBLE!' I answer. 'ARE YOU ALL OK?'

'YEAH WE'RE ALL OK! THE CAVE IN BLOCKED THE EXIT FOR US TOO!' Anne replied.

'HOW'RE WE GONNA GET OUT?' Sprig asks.

'ARE YOU TWO COMPLETELY CAVED IN OR IS THERE A TUNNEL OR SOMETHIN'?' Hop Pop asks.

I look behind me just to check and seen that the tunnel from before was mostly unaffected by the cave in.

'THERE'S A TUNNEL!' I answer him.

'WELL WE'VE GOT A TUNNEL TOO, WE'RE ALL JUST GONNA HAVE TO FOLLOW THEM AND HOPE THAT THEY MEET UP!' Hop Pop orders.

'SURE THING HOP POP! WON'T LET YOU DOWN!' Sprig says enthusiastically.

'STICK TOGETHER! AND SKYLAR, PLEASE KEEP AN EYE ON SPRIG!'

'WHAT!? C'MON! HER?!'

'WILL DO HOP POP!' I smile. 'C'mon Sprig, let's go!' I cheer, marching down the tunnel.

'Uuurrg fiiiiine' Sprig grumpily follows, clearly not impressed with Hop Pop's last request.

'Hey dude don't take it personally, Hop Pop probably only asked me cause I'm older'

'Yeah I guess, still kinda sucks' he puffed. He continued to walk next to me, arms crossed and face scrunched up.

I smiled at the sight of him being so childish although it's not all that different to how I'd act when dad would leave Sasha in charge. I look down at the thought of Sasha, I miss her. I don't think that we've ever been apart for this long and it feels weird. It's nice though, I've got Anne and we've been able to do all sorts of cool stuff here in Amphibia. Still I can't stop my mind from wandering to my sister. Where is she? Is she safe? Is she still with Grime? Does she miss me? Does she also stay up at night thinking about what happened at the tower?'

Deep breath in, deep breath out

I tell myself in an attempt to calm down. No point going down that rabbit hole right now. But there is something else I need to do. I haven't had a moment alone with Sprig till now so now is the perfect time to talk to him. And apologies.

I take a deep breath before speaking up 'Hey Sprig?'

'What?' Sprig responds, still grumpy.

'I'm sorry' I mutter as we continue to walk.

Sprig's expression softens. 'It's fine, I'm overreacting anyway'

'No not just for that, for everything... especially everything that happened at Toad Tower... I never really apologised for it before'

'Oh that...' I could see Sprigs whole mood change at the mention of what happened. 'It's.... ok. Everything's ok now'

'But it shouldn't be. I was one of the people who tried to kill Hop Pop, I came up with the fake banquet idea, I didn't do anything to help when Sasha-' I cut myself off to wipe away a few stray tears. 'I acted horrible during that whole thing...'

'Give yourself some credit, you saved Hop Pop when he almost fell off the tower, that proves that you're a good person'

'That hardly makes up for it and I shouldn't of even had to. I should have called off the whole thing when I realised how close you all were with Anne. I just wish that things had played out different, maybe then I'd know where Sasha is...'

'You're right. Things could have definitely gone better than they did but the fact that you realise that is good. You're a good person Sky, you've proven that in the short time I've known you. You didn't think twice before helping me back during the cave in'

'Yeah I guess you're right. Thanks Sprig, that really means a lot.' I smile down at the small frog.

Silence takes over us again, neither of us really knowing what to say. I felt like a HUGE weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

'Soooooo.......... how about we talk about a less depressing and traumatising topic.... what's your favourite colour?' Sprig speaks up.

'Orange, you?' I start to smile again.

'Blue, favourite ice cream?'

'Mint choc chip'

'Mine's crickets and cream. You ask a question'

'Alright then, favourite pizza? Mine's anything with pineapple'

'Every time we've tried making pizza I've somehow blown it up. I also remember when I suggested that we put pineapple on it Anne became pretty angry'

I giggle at his story. 'That definitely sounds like Anne, we used to bicker about what pizza to get all the time back home' I laugh a little more thinking back. 'Favourite book?'

'Eh don't have one, never really got into reading'

'Yeah me neither, I just love the crazy tropes some stories have like I saw one that was childhood friends, to enemies, to working together but with one planning a betrayal, to the betrayal happening and back to enemies, to having to work together again, to being separated from each other, to working together again, to friends and then finally to lovers' I finish with a small smile.

'Ya lost me'

'Haha yeah sorry. I tend to babble on quite a bit about stuff' I laugh a little.

'Sooooooo........ you liiiike anyone?' Sprig asks, surprising me.

My eyes go wide in shock and I feel my face start heat up ever so slightly.

'YOU DO!' Sprig yelled.

'W-what no I don't! You don't know what you're talking about!' I denied.

'You do! You do! You do! You doooooooo!'

'Stop it!'

'Who is it? Do I know them? Wait of course I don't know them the only human I know is Anne... IS IT ANNE!?'

'WHAT NO! No no no no no DEFINITELY not. Anne's my best friend dude that'd be weird'

'I ended up falling in love with my childhood best friend, who's to say that it's not the same for you' he countered. 'I'm right aren't I, you're in love with Aaaaaannneeee!'

'NO! STOP IT! I'M NOT I SWEAR!'

'Suuuuurrrreeeee'

'I do have feelings for someone but it IS NOT Anne, ok?'

'Mmmhhmmm' he replied smugly. 'Who is it then?'

'Me telling you would mean nothing, you don't know her'

'Yeah I suppose that's fair. AARRRHHHG why couldn't it have been Anne, now I can't tease you about it' he groans, hopping onto my head.

'Bad luck dude, now you're just gonna have to get creative with your teasing' I chuckle.

'Hey Sky, look! The end of the tunnel!' sprig says, jumping off my head

He was right, the long tunnel had ended and revealed a giant cavern with a ton of other tunnels connected to it. We were near the bottom but the cavern continued up super duper high.

'Whoa... look at this place'

'It's massive!' I comment looking up at all the other tunnels.

'SKYLAR! SPRIG!' Anne's voice calls out.

I look up and see Anne, Hop Pop, Polly and the Fwagon coming towards us.

'Anne!' Sprig exclaims, running up to hug Anne.

I follow behind him and give Anne a hug when her and Sprig break apart. As I part from Anne I look over and see a stupid smirk on Sprig's face causing me to glare and shake my head at him. He giggles in response and hops off to Hop Pop.

'Good thing those tunnels met up but I gotta say that I've never seen anything like this' Hop POP comments.

'Yeah, wonder what made all these tunnels' Sprig says.

Just as he said that the cavern began to violently shake before giant snake like creatures burst out of the walls.

'You just HAD to ask didn't ya' I grumbled, pulling out my shield.

'Never mind that! lets just find a way out of here!' Hop Pop yells.

My eyes dart around the cavern, looking for any glimmer of natural light to indicate an exit. Then I saw it, one tunnel across from all of us was quite well lit and it seemed to be caused by natural light.

'Guys look! Over there!' I call out, pointing towards the exit.

'Nice one Sky!' Sprig cheers, shooting his slingshot at one of the tunnel snakes.

'How are we supposed to get past all these giant snakes!' Polly asks.

'C'mon everyone get up on the Fwagon! We'll force our way through!' Hop Pop ordered.

We all followed the instruction and got atop the Fwagon.

'Bessie! Things are getting messy!' Hop Pop yelled causing Bessie to start charging forward.

As we drove we all had to knock down a few persistent tunnel snakes when they tried to jump up. We drove full speed towards the exit and burst out into the sunlight.

'Hey the rain stopped!' Sprig cheered.

I look back at the exit and see that the tunnel snakes were stopping just before the sunlight hit them.

'And looks like those tunnel snakes can't handle sunlight' I smile at the discovery.

'Not just that! Those tunnels took us straight through the mountain pass, that saved us three days of driving!' Hop Pop exclaims.

'WHOO HOO!' We all cheer.

'Even closer to Newtopia!'

'Alright kids let's keep on driving!'

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