Skylar's P.O.V

The day after our arrival in Newtopia Marcy had taken us all to one of her favourite restaurants. The Plantars, Anne, Marcy and I were all seated around an outside table looking at the burgers in front of us.

"Enjoy everyone! This place makes the best beetle burgers in lol of Newtopia!" Marcy says as we all dig in.

As we eat, Marcy pulls out her notebook and starts writing things down.

"What's that?" Polly asks in Marcy's direction.

"Oh just my journal. I like jotting down theories and observations. Y'know, all about indigenous fauna, medicinal techniques, customs and nuances of Amphibious species-based caste systems. Sometimes I even do drawings!" She explains, showing Polly a drawing she did of her.

"It looks just like me!" Polly says in awe.

"Wow! Anne, Sky, have you two been keeping a journal too?" Hop Pop asks us.

I shake my head no as my mouth was still full and I turn to Anne who had her back turned. She turns around and I saw that she had a straw coming out of each nostril.

"Look guys! I'm a straw-lrus! Like a walrus but with straws!"

I giggle at her antics while Sprig laughs out loud.

"What's a walrus?" He asked when he had stopped laughing.

"Who should I give the bill too?" The waiter asked as he approached the table. "Probably not you" he makes a reasonable assumption as he looks at Anne's appearance.

"Oh I'll take it! It's, oh, let me guess... 28 coppers?" Marcy guesses.

"Right you are" the waiter confirmed showing the bill that showed exactly 28 coppers.

"Wow! Can you two do math like that too?" Hop Pop asks us.

"Uh, you mean like with numbers and stuff?" Anne asks.

"Yeah no, math ain't our strong suit" I shake my head.

"Can you imagine if Marcy got stuck with us instead of Anne? We'd be set for life!"

"Hush Polly. Think those thoughts, don't say them" Hop Pop scalded but didn't really make it any better.

"Oh yeah? Well... LOOK OUT!" She called out, ducking as an arrow shot past our heads.

"Someone's trying to kill us!" Hop Pop claims, pointing to the arrow stuck in the wall.

"No, no, it's fine. It's just a message from the king" Marcy assured us, getting up to grab the scroll attached to the arrow. "Oh correction, it's a puzzle gram from the king"

"A what?" We all ask her.

"He's basically hidden clues around the city and when I collect them all, I get a message. Ah it's so fun!" She happily explains, showing us the message. "Ok. This first symbol is a tree, so we should head towards coral park. Now come on team, it's puzzle time!" She enthusiastically cheers.

"A puzzle tour of Newtopia! Count me in!" Sprig cheered, hopping out of his seat.

"Oh hell yeah! Me too!" I agree with him, standing up.

"Then lets go!" Marcy cheers as we all, minus Polly and Hop Pop, run off towards Newtopias coral park.

I stand next to Marcy as she leads us through the streets of Newtopia. I can hear Sprig behind me, marvelling at everything he sees.

"Aren't puzzles just the best?" Marcy asks me, still looking at the puzzle-gram. "It's so much more fun when you have to figure out what the message is. It's boring if they just give it to you. There's just no challenge that way. This is waaaaayyy better!" She rambles on as we walk.

I just intently listen as she theorises more about what the puzzle could mean and how we would solve it. I turn around just in time to see Anne face plant a hanging sign.

"Here it is guys, Coral Park!" Marcy announces as we arrived.

"So, one eye open and one eye closed...Hmmm..." Anne thinks, looking at the clue. "Oh! What if we aren't supposed to look at the trees? What if we're supposed to listen to them?" Anne suggests while hugging a tree.

"I love it!" Marcy smiles. "But I was also thinking... this statue of Ezra Brackish is looking through a telescope. He's got one eye open and one eye closed, right?" She explains, walking up behind the statue. She takes off the hat of the statue to reveal a spot to look through the telescope. "Bring. So that's the first part of the message. Brilliant-Oof" she was cut off by her own clumsiness, falling backwards. I quickly move forward and catch her before she hit the ground. "Hehe, thanks" she smiles up at me. "So the next clue is...oh! I recognise this! Cmon gang, lets motor!" She cheers, running off.

"Maybe you'll have better luck on the next one?" Sprig tries to encourage as we walk up to Anne who was still hugging a tree.

"Yeah, I can do this! Lets go get that next clue!" Anne cheers, following after Marcy.

"Yeah that's the spirit!" Sprig cheers, hopping onto my head as we run after Marcy.

"Anne c'mon!" Sprig calls out when we notice she wasn't behind us.

We eventually caught up with Marcy as she was looking between an old building and the puzzle-gram.

"Hmmmm...." The four of us think allowed.

"Why the 'W'?" Marcy asks no one in particular. "I mean what's that supposed to mean?"

"Let me take this one Mar-Mar" Anne confidently says, taking the map from Marcy's grip.

She stands there staring at the parchment for a few seconds, seeming to be struggling a bit.

"Hey Anne are you-" I start to say.

'AHH! I mean... Ohhhh I see" she quickly recovered from her panic. "Hey I gotta go the the bathroom! BRB!" She yelled, running off with the puzzle-gram.

"Was Anne acting weird to any of you?" I ask the other two.

"Nah she's fiiiiine" Sprig assured. "Hey Marcy can I see your crossbow arm?"

"I don't see why not" Marcy agreed, loading it up and passing it to Sprig.

Sprig hops around, making the most of his new crossbow as Marcy and I continue to think about the puzzle.

"Hmm... I wonder..." I think allowed, remembering the 'W' on the puzzle-gram. I walk up to the west side of the building and take note that it looks quite different than the other walls. "Hey Marcy? Does this wall look important to you?" I ask the girl.

"Yes! I knew this looked familiar! The lines between the bricks of this west side wall of the museum match up perfectly with the street grid of Newtopia!" She explains, passing me a map of the city.

I look at the map and then up at the wall, taking a step forward. "Which would us right about... here!" I say, removing a lose brick.

"Me. Bring me" Marcy reads out the next part of the clue. "Only one clue left to go" she smiles, grabbing my hand and running off down a side street of the city.

After a minute of running, Anne and Sprig managed to catch up with us.

"Hey Anne, took you long enough" I smile at her. "Take a look at the last puzzle!" I say, passing her the map. "Marcy thinks it's referring to the big bridge downtown" I explain to her.

"Hop Pop! Polly! We're going to the bridge!" Sprig calls out to the other two Plantars.

"Take me with you!" Polly pleaded, but was ignored as we kept on running.

The four of us keep running together until we arrived at the bridge. To say that it was an impressive sight would be an understatement.

"WHAT!" Sprig, Anne and I gasped in awe, staring up at the giant golden statue of Marcy.

"Oh, yeah, yeah I know" Marcy stuttered sheepishly. "I made a few suggestions on how to increase the weight limit and they kinda, like, named it after me" she explained, rubbing her neck. "Now c'mon! Lets see where this triangle fits in!" She smiles, running off.

"Ok you gotta admit that's kinda overkill" I mutter, staring at the statue.

"Okay so she designed a bridge, that doesn't mean that she-" Sprig tries to encourage.

"Please stop" Anne cuts him off. "Why don't you two go ahead? I think I need a moment alone" Anne sighs, walking off.

"Anne?-" I start, reaching out to her.

"I'm fine, just need a minute. I'll catch up with you later"

"Uh, ok... call us if you need anything" I sadly reassured her. "C'mon Sprig" I say as we walk off to where Marcy was.

"I was certain that it had something to do with the bridge..." Marcy mumbles, looking at the puzzle-gram. "I dunno guys, I'm not sure what it means" she admits, looking to Sprig and I.

"Don't look at me, you two are the smart ones" Sprig shrugs.

"Hey Anne! Marcy, Sprig and I are stumped!" I call out to Anne who was sitting on a bench down the street.

"Alright, what do we got here?" Anne asks, coming to stand next to us. "Hmm... ok... easy! So, a triangle has three sides, right? Three rhymes with... tea! And you brew tea with... water! And there's water in uhh... the sewer! Let's go down there!" Anne claimed, moving towards the sewer.

"That seems like a bit of a stretch..." Marcy mumbles.

"Well I say we give it a shot! We weren't getting anywhere anyway" I shrug, following after Anne.

"This sewer is shockingly clean!" Sprig notes, looking around the space.

"There's actually a reason for that. I-"

"Rebuilt the sewer system?" The rest of us finish her sentence for her.

"How'd you know that?"

"Lucky guess" I respond, playfully rolling my eyes.

"Hey check that out!" Anne says, pointing at a pipe valve. "That looks just like the circle in the clue...kinda. We obviously have to turn it" she continues, turning it.

After she turned it we could hear water moving followed by a pipe nearby beginning to let out water. Water wasn't the only thing to come out of the pipe though. Out came a ginormous alligator that began to make its way towards us.

"Speak of the devil! Here comes one of my improvements. Would you guys believe that in addition to eating alive meat, these babies love eating trash" Marcy explains with a smile.

"Hey Mar-Mar?"

"Hmm?"

"You do know that we're live meat, right?"

"Ohh.... Right" she replied, smiling sheepishly up at the alligator.

"Let's go!" Anne yells, grabbing me and Marcy's hands and running away.

We managed to climb up the ladder but the sewer grate wouldn't budge.

"Nachos! Get your nachos!" Someone from above the grate calls out.

"Gertie? Is that you? It's me, Anne. I need help!" Anne calls out to someone named Gertie.

"Anne? Don't worry kiddo. I got ya!" The person yells from above. "Got it! Here, grab my arm!"

"C'mon Mar-Mar" Anne and I say trying to push her up out of the hole.

Unfortunately as we went to pull her up, the alligator had grabbed a hold of her cape. She quickly detached her cape causing the beast to fall.

"Anne, you hang in there, you hear? Anne!" Gertie continued to encourage us.

"We'll save you Anne!"

"Don't let go!"

Two other people had come out of nowhere to lend a hand in getting us out. Right as the alligator was getting ready to jump at us, Polly was lowered down.

"Grab on! Hop Pop now!"

We were all suddenly pulled up out of the sewer, narrowly avoiding becoming lunch.

"Anne, what happened? Are you ok? Can't you go ten minutes on your own without getting into some kind of crazy danger?"

"Aw, give her a break Hop Pop. Anne's already sad because Marcy's so smart she makes her feel dumb" Sprig says without thinking.

"Sprig!" Anne exclaims, annoyed and embarrassed.

"What?... Anne, is that true?" Marcy asks sadly.

"I don't know. Maybe? I guess I get a little jealous of you sometimes..." she sighs, all of us listening intently. "I mean, you're so smart, and I'm... not" she looks down at the ground.

"Anne, that's insane!" I assure her.

"Besides, I'm jealous of you" Marcy adds on.

"Huh? What for?" Anne asks confused.

"Yeah, what for?" Polly asks, receiving a scolding glare from me.

"You get along with people so well. Three people you met today just risked their lives to save you" she said, gesturing to the three strangers who had helped us. "Yeah, sure, I'm good at solving puzzles and calculating the check, but you're amazing at making connections. Me, I have trouble looking people in the eye sometimes"

"Thanks Marcy" Anne smiles, now standing next to her. "Maybe that's why we make such a good team. Come here you" she says, opening her arms for a hug.

"Hey, anyone else want a snack? That nice lady gave me some nachos" Sprig offers.

"Whoa! Wait a sec, it's... Look!" Anne says, looking at one of the nachos. "The symbol... it's a natcho!"

"Sprig! Empty that tray!" I order the frog boy.

Sprig complied and ate the rest of the nachos, revealing the last clue. 'The Plantars' was clearly written in the bottom of the tray.

"That means the message is..."

"Bring..."

"Me.."

"The Plantars!"

"Oh, guys, we've been summoned!" Marcy cheered.

"And you solved the puzzle-gram, Anne!" Smiled, wrapping her in a hug.

"Self-esteem boost and an audience with the ruler of this world? Win-win, baby!" Anne cheered, pumping her fist.

"So... you guys wanna feed gnatchos to that alligator?" Polly suggested.

"Oh yeah"

"Sure thing"

"Sounds like fun!"

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