Another Friend in Amphibia

Chapter 29: Anne Hunter

The duo started running again and stopped when they came across a path that split into three different directions. "That's not good."

"Yeah, I-I can't do this." Anne said.

"What's the plan?" Drake asked hoping she knew what to do. Every second they spent here lowered their chances of catching that beast.

"I don't know Drake. The trail's gone completely cold. Sprig was right. I don't know what I'm doing. If only he were here with me." Anne looked defeated. Suddenly she looked behind her and screamed, falling to the floor. "Sprig! Holy cow, are you dead? Is this your ghost?"

"Anne? Who are you talking to? Sprig's not here." Drake asked looking around but seeing nothing.

Anne ignored him. "So, what you're saying is, I finally snapped. Welp, as long as you're helping. So, what do we do?" Anne looked ahead. "Right. The steps. What was the first one again? Right, right. Track." pushing something away. "How do I track again?"

Drake was just staring at her. She definitely lost her mind. Maybe she's been in Amphibia for too long.

Anne dropped to all fours as she started smelling the dirt. "Okay, I'm tasting. I'm tasting." Anne grabbed a handful of dirt and licked it. She gagged once it touched her tongue.

"Anne, why did you do that?" Drake questioned.

Anne ignored him again. "Sprig, what is the point of-? Wait a minute." she scooped up more dirt and ate it. "I'm tasting something. I'm getting... Polly's biscuits! Which means it's this way." Anne ran down one of the paths leaving a confused Drake behind.

It took him a second to register what happened. Then he realized Anne had already taken off without him and he needed to catch up.

"With you guiding us, we might just be able to pull this off. Now come on, Hallucination Sprig. You too Drake!" Anne yelled.

They continued to navigate the woods. Although the terrain was pretty rough, it was no obstacle for the two teenagers. Although Drake wasn't as athletic as Anne was, he was great at parkour and could keep up without much trouble.

"You really need to stop that." Anne said to some invisible hallucination of Sprig. Anne and Drake peeked through some tall bushes and finally found the beast they were tracking. It still had the Plantars. The beast threw them to the ground and pinned them down with one of its paws. "What the heck is that thing anyway?"

"I don't know. Whatever it is, we need to come up with a plan quickly." Drake replied.

"Scorpileo? That is, one messed up horoscope. Think. What was step two?" Anne sat down then she snapped her fingers. "Use your environment! Drake, I need you to gather some leaves, I'm gonna dig a hole."

"Alright." Drake ran off to gather as many leaves as he could. Luckily there was a stash of giant leaves nearby. Once Anne was finished digging, he threw the leaves on top of the hole, covering it up.

"Done. Okay, what's next?" then she groaned. "Okay, just this once because I like you guys a lot." Anne stepped forward. "Hey, furball!" she took a deep breath and started dancing.

"Anne? What are you doing? Why are you dancing?" Drake was still confused.

The beast looked at Anne then went back to its next meal. "It's not working." Anne looked at the invisible hallucination again. "There is no music."

The beast opened its mouth and was about to bite Polly who started screaming.

"Anne! We gotta do something now! Tell me! What do I do? I can't make decisions!" Drake panicked while still hiding behind the bushes.

"Right. I have to do this." Anne got on all fours and prepared herself.

Drake noticed what was happening and sneakily pulled out his phone. He pressed the record button just as she began to do some strange dance.

She started doing some kind of tribal dance. It was weird but mesmerizing. Drake found he couldn't look away as she started shaking. "I am the leaves. I am... the Hunter!" Anne's dancing became more erratic as she flopped like a fish, ran in place and even smashed her face against a nearby tree trunk.

Drake kept his phone focused on Anne but noticed the beast was curious about Anne's strange dance. Whatever she was doing, it was working. While she danced, she kicked some dirt into the scorpileo's face. It pounced at her, but she ignored it and kept dancing, causing her to duck under the beast.

"Woo-hoo! I did it! Danced in your face." then she looked at Drake. "Were you recording me just now?"

"Uh yeah... you never know when you need blackmail." Drake replied.

Suddenly they noticed scorpileo climbing out of the hole. "Whoop. Gotta go. Come on, family, let's skedaddle." Anne yelled as she picked up Polly. The whole family ran off into the woods.

Once they were back at the camp, they were able to relax. "You did it, Anne." Hop Pop said as he sat down.

"It was the best hunter's dance I've ever seen." Sprig added.

"I did, didn't I? I heard the music, Sprig. I felt one with nature. You were right." Anne said. Then she looked away at what was clearly the invisible hallucination Drake couldn't see. "And so were you buddy."

"Uh, who are you talking to?" Sprig asked.

"Don't ask." Drake sighed. "Wait, I just realized. We still don't have any food."

"Don't worry about it Drake, we'll be fine." Hop Pop said.

"So... is anyone gonna tell me what this Plantar family hunting dance is all about?" Drake asked.

Author's Note

________________________________________________________________________________

Well, here we are. Another chapter completed. Ever noticed how Drake sort of fades into the background and gets relegated to side character? Often times the other characters would barely acknowledge him. That's actually intentional and it's gonna keep coming up. It's something you might want to take note of going forward. Consider it mentioned.