Amphibia: The Fourth One - Heart

A Whole New World (That's Pretty Weird, All Things Considered)

Riley hesitantly walked through the forest, not really paying attention to where he was going due to the fact he seemed to be in an entirely new world.

"What is this place...?" He asked himself, looking around. He then bumped into something and fell. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to bump into..." 

He looked up and saw a gigantic green praying mantis that was staring directly right at him. "youuuu..."

The mantis hissed and Riley yelled, which only angered the mantis more. He started to run, the mantis following suit. 

He ran past some bushes and trees, brushing against branches in a desperate attempt to escape. Most of the branches whacked him, one particular branch tearing open some of his school uniform and shirt, scarring him as he continued running. The mantis was trailing behind, slowly getting farther and farther as Riley went faster and faster.

He hid behind a tree, holding his breath. The mantis looked around for a little before giving up and leaving. 

Riley exhaled loudly and took deep breaths, in disbelief about what just happened. He placed his hand on his side and winced, the scar clear as day.

He breathed heavily, curling up into a ball and laying sideways onto the ground. He stayed there for an hour or two, not wanting to move, feeling traumatized and deflated from the entire experience. It didn't help that the grass was softer than the sidewalk he was sleeping on. He might've even considered in an improvement if he didn't just have a near-death experience.

His stomach rumbled after a bit. So, reluctantly, he opened the blueberry muffin container he had saved for Anne. A few of them were crumbled, only leaving scattered crumbs. Still, some will intact, so he ate 3 of them before he felt like that was enough.

Now somewhat full, he decided the best thing to do would be to sleep. He laid down and practically glued his eyes shut. He felt like sobbing... so that's what he did. He cried. Loudly. To nobody.

An almost unending half-hour passed, and he finally fell asleep, eyes still a bit damp. The grass wasn't that comfortable, so surely he'd only sleep for like, 10, 20 minutes, especially after a near-death experience, right?

9 hours later...

Riley woke up, feeling well-rested for once. Of course, the feeling wore off when he realized there were dozens of bugs crawling all over him. He jolted up and tried to shake them all off. "Ew ew ew, get off get off get off!" He swatted any remaining bugs and sighed. What could he do now?

He thought about it for a moment. "Well, I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future. Might as well explore, right?" He chuckled humorlessly to himself. He sniffled a little, wiped his eyes, and ventured out into the world.

Riley tried to stay positive, even though the situation was... well, not. "Wow, so many... trees. Very... good for the environment. I guess." He thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye, but he told himself that it must've been his imagination.

"Stay positive. Staying positive! Soooo positive right now!" Riley was, in fact, not staying positive, and instead was spiraling. "Oh god, am I gonna die here...?"

But before his existential crisis could continue, he saw the bushes move. He knew something was in there. He slowly crept closer... and closer... before something popped out of the bushes. Or rather, someone.

Anne stood up from the bush, stick in hand. "If you get any closer, I'll jab you with this stick at you... you..." She looked closer and was shocked. "You... Riley?"

"...Anne?" Riley said, in shock. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before they threw themselves into each other's arms and laughed. "Anne! How are you here??"

"How are you here, dude?? I only remember Sasha and Marcy being there..." Anne exclaimed.

Riley shrugged. "Well, I wanted to get you a gift! As a surprise! Though I may have been a bit too surprise-y."

Anne smiled before quickly getting serious. "Wait, you what?! You don't have that much money left! What if you ran out and couldn't afford something like food? What if you had to steal to survive?! What if... what if..."

"Anne, calm down. I wanted to get it for you. We're... we talk a lot." Riley explained. Anne looked at him for a while before exhaling loudly. She was clearly still worried about him, but decided to stay silent for now. 

"...What did you get me?" She asked, curious.

He held up the blueberry muffin container. "Ta-da!" Unfortunately, due to the mantis thing that happened the day before, and the fact he ate some of them, there were only two muffins left in the container. "Well... well, there were more before, but y'know. Circumstances."

Anne looked grateful. "Thanks, dude." She held a muffin up and tilted it as if it was a glass. "Cheers."

They bumped muffins and immediately started stuffing their faces with it. "You know, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast yesterday." Anne said, still chewing.

"Well, lucky I bought you these then, huh?" Riley put his hands on his hips, mildly proud of himself. 

Anne rolled her eyes and chuckled a little. "But seriously, next time, you can just tell me happy birthday and I'll be happy."

"If there even is a next time... we don't know how long we'll be here for." Riley explained, worried about their future. Anne choked on her muffin after hearing this.

She pounded her chest a couple times before swallowing. "...Are we... we're not gonna die here, are we?"

Riley stared into space before shrugging. "Uhhhhh, probably not?" He sounded incredibly unconvincing, but they were both desperate, so they tried to believe it as if it was fact.

"Yeah... yeah! I mean, we aren't dead yet! And neither are-" Anne paused for a second. "Sasha and Marcy! Do you think they're also in this forest?"

Riley thought about it for a little. "Yeah, probably. It'd be extremely coincidental, not to mention contrived, for us to appear in basically the same place if they resurfaced in two entirely separate places, so I'm sure they're also somewhere in this forest." He said, lampshading.

"Well... we should look for them!" Anne exclaimed. "They've got to be around here somewhere! Worst-case scenario, we waste the entire day and lose nothing."

"Actually, I think worst-case scenario would be finding their dead bodies scattered across the..." Riley wisely decided to stop talking after seeing the color drain from Anne's face.

"...I mean, both of them are way more capable than I am, so if I survived, they must've as well! Unless they appeared in the sky and fell to their deaths... or were clawed to death by those gigantic praying mantises... I also saw a gigantic mosquito, if they had their blood sucked out of their bodies- I'm... not helping, am I?"

Anne shakily exhaled and put her hand on Riley's shoulder. "No, Riley. No you are not."

Riley looked away. "Sorry."

They stayed in silence for a minute before Riley walked deeper into the forest. "Well, we better go find out for ourselves, shouldn't we?" 

Anne smiled slightly. "Yeah... yeah, we will! Sasha and Marcy, we will find you!"