Welcome to Bugaria: Act 1

After the whole incident with the berries and Bitsy, Team Snakemouth took it easy for the next few days, especially since their next major mission was on the horizon.

Kabbu spent an entire day making sure Bitsy harbored no ill will toward him for his actions, practically going over the top for the cicada. At the same time, Anne and Vi apologized on Kabbu's behalf for the trouble they to everyone they could remember visiting, most of them thankfully showing forgiveness.

Well, this certainly wouldn't help Anne's standing in Ant City. Any time she made any sort of progress whatsoever, it felt like the entire world conspired to make her start from scratch all over again. Whatever. It didn't help that the music box research proved to be fruitless, providing her with zero leads. What would she do now?

Despite these thoughts floating around in her mind, Anne still tried to take her mind off them. On the first day, it was difficult, but by the second or third day, it was as if she was back to her old self! Who knew looking on the bright side could work so well!

That morning, she'd woken up a little earlier than usual, going over to Fry's place to get her usual breakfast. Anne hummed to herself, carrying the plate of food back to the house. She practically beamed with happiness, more than excited about the upcoming events.

"Tomorrow, me and the rest of Team Snakemouth are gonna head out to the Golden Path." Anne said to herself, her eyes sparkling. It was new, uncharted territory for her... though that was only part of the reason she couldn't wait for today.

Anne reached the front door, holding the plate of food in one hand so she could fish the key to the house out of her pocket. "Which means I have just enough time to watch the last few episodes of this show I'm super invested in, Coco the Angsty Mule!" Before Anne had been transported to Bugaria, she watched the first season of the show on her phone and decided to download the rest of it for later. By now she only had five episodes left of the final season, and there couldn't be a more perfect time to watch it!

Anne hummed the theme song of the show to herself as she found the key, unlocking the door before walking inside, making sure not to be too loud as to wake the others up. Kabbu, Vi, and Leif were still sleeping soundly, and she didn't want to be rude.

After locking the door, Anne casually walked over to the couch, her mind running miles with possibilities of what could happen in the final few episodes. The storyline was getting intense, she had to know how it would end. She set her plate of food down next to her and turned on her phone-

Only to see an alert.

GOLDEN HILLS EXPEDITION – TODAY

Anne stared at her phone, mouth agape.

She was about to scream that she mixed up the dates, but slapped her hand over her mouth, preventing herself from blurting that out and waking everyone up. A moment later, Anne took her hand off of her mouth, checking the calendar on her phone; double-checking and triple-checking to make sure that the expedition was today, and by comparing how many days passed since the whole Bitsy incident happened...

...Yep. Today is the day they're supposed to go.

"Oh no." Anne said, beginning to panic. "I won't have enough time to finish my show before we leave! I'll be busy for weeks!" Each episode was 22 minutes long, and they were supposed to leave today right after breakfast. There was no way she could finish before then, and if the Snakemouth Den expedition was anything to go by, then there'd be little to no time to just sit around and do whatever during the mission either.

And if Anne didn't finish her show, then she'd be distracted, constantly thinking about what would happen next... and she definitely didn't want a repeat of what happened in Snakemouth Den with Kabbu and Suspicion Island. What to do, what to do... she needed just one extra day, then she'd be more than ready to look for however many artifacts were needed!

Anne glanced around, trying to think of an excuse, a distraction, or- her eyes landed on the breakfast she hadn't touched yet. ...That's it! A plan quickly formulated itself in her head; it might not be honest, but it would work perfectly.

Without wasting a second, Anne grabbed a handful of the food, shoveling it into her mouth before she quickly chewed and gulped it down. She then grabbed the plate of food and set it on the ground by the couch... and now, it was time for the final step of her plan. Anne apologized to Fry in her head for what she was about to do, but it had to be done.

Anne curled up onto the couch on her side, tucked into the fetal position, wrapping her arms around herself. She groaned, her face appearing as if she was in pain. And now she just had to wait for someone to wake up.

A few minutes later, Kabbu was the first one up. Still half-awake, he got out of bed, stretching before he started walking over to the kitchen to make himself breakfast. Along the way, he saw Anne on the couch. "Good morning Anne, how are- ANNE!?"

It took him a second to notice her current state, but once he did, he dropped whatever he was gonna do, rushing to her side. Perfect. "Are you okay?! What happened?!" Kabbu asked, giving Anne a moment so she could respond.

Anne had a lot of experience faking being sick. Whether it was to get out of a test or so she could play a new video game while everyone else was at school, she knew just what buttons to push to make it all the more convincing. There was the rare occasion where her mom or dad saw past her lies, but that only proved to improve her skills, eliminating any mistakes in future attempts to stay home.

Anne started to open her mouth, but she abruptly began fake-coughing, surprising Kabbu. "No..." Anne weakly shook her head, and Kabbu looked like he was about to cry. She was lucky Kabbu was the first one up, this was gonna be much easier than she thought.

"I took a bite of breakfast..." Anne said, making sure her voice sounded hoarse and weak. "And that's when I started feeling sick..." Anne grunted, clutching her midsection as she shut her eyes.

Kabbu gasped, seeing the partially eaten plate of food on the floor. "Food poisoning!" Thankfully, Kabbu didn't ask where she got the food from as he picked up the plate of food, hurrying over to a trash can to throw the food away, plate and all. "I'll need to take that out later." Kabbu said to himself as he walked back to Anne.

Now to make it even more convincing. Anne shivered, trying to make sure that Kabbu saw every second of it, adding a few coughs for good measure. Kabbu rushed over to Anne's bed, getting her blanket and draping it over her. As soon as he did, Anne stopped shivering.

"Do you need anything else, Anne?" Kabbu asked, getting onto his knees so he could be closer to eye level.

Hm... With all the fake coughing she was going to be doing, she would need something to drink, or else her throat might actually get hoarse. "Water would be good..." Anne slowly said, blinking a few times.

Kabbu nodded, standing up and speed-walking over to the cabinet. He grabbed a cup, turning on the sink to fill it up with water before walking over to Anne, handing her the cup. "If you need any more, please let me know!"

"Thank you." Anne said, gulping down over half the water in one go. Man, that cold water was refreshing. It only just occurred to her that she never got a drink when she had breakfast in the first place. Oh well, it was good she had it now.

Afterward, Kabbu stayed by Anne's side for what felt like forever, the beetle occasionally patting her and telling her that she was going to be okay. Anne wanted to pull out her phone and start watching her show, but she also needed to play it safe. It would be safer to wait until later, when she would be feeling 'better' enough.

Several minutes later, Vi and Leif woke up, Kabbu immediately explaining what happened to Anne. Vi was likely to fall for it, but from past experiences, Leif was the most inquisitive of all of them. He'd be the most likely to see through her act... hopefully, that wouldn't happen.

"What do you MEAN she's sick?!" Vi yelled, frustrated. "She better not be contagious!"

"...How exactly would food poisoning be contagious?" Leif asked, even though he wouldn't get an answer. "But anyway. We hope Anne feels better soon, being sick is not fun at all."

"Yeah, I hope she gets better too! Being sick is the worst, it feels like you can't do anything without collapsing!" Vi agreed. It was clear how hard she was trying to avoid mentioning treasure or adventure at all.

"Absolutely. Something I would hate for any of my friends to experience, but... it happened." Kabbu said with a sigh. Why was he being so overdramatic? "I know we'd prepared to leave today, but we'll have to postpone our trip to the Golden Hills until tomorrow. I'm sorry."

"Hey, why are YOU apologizing?" Vi asked. "That stupid food Anne ate should be the ones saying sorry, now I have to wait even LONGER to get more treasure!" Aaaand there it was.

"Anne's well-being comes first. We would never leave a friend or team member behind." Leif chastised, giving the bee a disapproving look.

"I KNOW THAT!" Vi yelled, crossing her arms with a huff. "Obviously I want her to be better too! This is just really REALLY bad timing!"

"And arguing about isn't going to make her feel better any faster!" Kabbu said, shutting Leif and Vi up. "She's the youngest out of all of us! I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to her!"

Anne couldn't help but feel guilty about being the reason that her friends were arguing. If she didn't fake sick, they'd all be on their way to the Golden Path, saying goodbye to everyone they knew in Ant City. But instead, they were arguing over her, which was why Anne pulled up the blanket over herself just enough to hide part of her face, shame building up inside her.

"Right. Let's focus on making sure she gets better as soon as possible." Leif said. Kabbu and Vi nodded in agreement, and then Leif walked over to Anne, the human girl putting her 'sick' face back on as he looked down at her.

"Okay. We... aren't sure how different human sickness is compared to how we usually get sick." Leif began. Wow, he was really taking this seriously. "All of us want to make sure we can take care of you and get you feeling better properly, so please... just tell us whatever you can. We're all worried about you, Anne."

At this point, admitting that she was just faking was out of the question. She had to stick to it, but not make it too overcomplicated at the same time. Anne overdramatically groaned in fake pain, adding a few coughs afterward for good measure. "For humans, food poisoning goes away on its own within 24 hours." Anne weakly said, coming up with that number off the top of her head.

"Is there any way to treat it earlier?" Vi asked, wanting to hurry this up for everyone's sake. "Like medicine, food, stuff like that? There might be a doctor in Ant City-"

"No need, no need." Anne slowly shook her head. She had to keep this simple; it was going to be too easy. "I just need to-" COUGH "wait it out."

"If that's the only way, then very well." Kabbu said, turning to Vi and Leif. None of them noticed Anne silently snickering to herself. "We shall stay by her side until she's cured of her food poisoning!"

And so, that's what they did. Kabbu, Vi, and Leif stayed in the house all day to look after Anne; none of them went outside even for a second. They were really committed to looking after her, huh... well, if one of her friends got sick, Anne would look after them!

The three tended to her almost constantly to the point it became a bit overbearing, but a few hours in, Vi got the hint and told them to back off or else they'd smother Anne before she could have any hope of getting better. ...Anne wished that Vi had worded it a little more nicely, but it still got the point across well enough.

It was nice to have them all watching over and caring for her, though. She still had to keep up her ruse by coughing and groaning occasionally, but it was worth it... so she could finish her show! But she wasn't able to just yet.

When Kabbu was by her side, he had a book out, flipping through it. When Anne asked him about it, he explained that it was a book of potential cures in Bugaria, ranging from stuff that sounded sketchy all the way to mystical items that would be near-impossible to find. Thankfully, Anne wouldn't need any of that stuff.

Around lunchtime, Leif walked over to Anne, carrying a plate of food in his hands. "We're not much of a cook, but... we hope this is okay." He spoke. Oh yeah, Anne was too 'sick' to make herself food... Leif's cooking did taste alright, though. He lacked major experience, but it was passable.

At some point, Anne told Vi (who was the bug with her at the time) that she felt better enough to watch stuff on her phone. Vi accepted that, but only if Vi got to watch it with her. With that, the two of them spent nearly two hours finishing up the show Anne was so invested in... wow, that was a beautiful ending. Worth it to put off finding the next artifact for another day.

"I think I'm missing a lot of context." Vi commented, Anne nearly laughing in response before she disguised it with a fake cough.

Before Anne knew it, the late evening had arrived. Kabbu insisted on Anne falling asleep early, but before that, all three of them checked on her a bit more. ...She really did feel bad about making them fuss over her like this, but one day couldn't hurt them. At the same time, Anne wanted to lift their spirits up; make them confident that nothing would go wrong tomorrow... partially a way to ease her guilt.

"Don't worry, guys." Anne said, feeling 'better' enough to sit up on the couch. "Come tomorrow-" COUGH "Tomorrow, I'll be better and raring to go!" She gave them a big smile, before fake-coughing several more times.

"You better not be lying!" Vi said. "Because you need to feel better!" Oh, there was absolutely a 100% chance that she would 'feel better.' Hehe.

"Let's not keep her up any longer." Leif said to Kabbu and Vi, feeling bad for Anne.

Kabbu nodded in agreement before turning to Anne and patting her on the arm. "Get plenty of rest, okay? Don't wake up until you're good and ready."

"Thanks, guys." Anne said, more than grateful for all they've done for her. She laid back down on the couch, pulling the blanket over her as she closed her eyes. She saw the ending of her show, so she was satisfied, ready to take on any challenge the following day.

She soon dozed off... perhaps into one of the best sleeps she ever had-

"Let's GO!"

Without warning, Anne abruptly woke up to Kabbu clapping his hands right in front of her face, the beetle looking impatient. "Anne, this is the third time I've called you! You need to get up!"

Still trying to process what was going on, Anne sat up on the couch. "What? No it isn't!" Anne said, knowing that if Kabbu had yelled like he was now, then surely, she would've woken up then. Wait, was it really morning already?

Kabbu paused. "It isn't?" he asked himself, contemplating this for a few moments before shrugging. "Well alright then, this is the first time I'm calling you! We've got work to do."

"Okay okay, geez!" Anne said as she grabbed her blanket and tossed it to the side. So much for sleeping in. Kabbu wasn't even going to ask if she was feeling better? ...Well, she did promise that she would 'feel better' by the morning.

"Thank you." Kabbu said, helping Anne up off the couch and to her feet. "The others are already ready!" Sure enough, Vi and Leif were wide awake, initially in a conversation with each other, but stopping when they saw that Anne was awake.

Kabbu was definitely acting weird, like he was putting himself on some unknown time limit. "Are we really in that much of a rush to get to the Golden Path?" Anne asked, raising an eyebrow. If anything, she expected Vi to be the one to rush them all out for the sake of adventure and treasure.

Vi shook her head, crossing her arms. "Nope. See, this is why I said you should explain it to her before waking her up!" Vi said, directed toward Kabbu. The beetle gave her a slight glare in response. Leif let out a small sigh of exasperation at seeing this.

"What's-" Anne began, raising a finger as she started to ask a question, only to hear the BOOM! of thunder outside, nearly making her jump. Vi flinched at the loud noise as well, her fuzz standing on end.

Kabbu yelped at the booming noise, shaking slightly.

"You should be expecting that by now after the last seven times today, you know." Leif pointed out. This time, the beetle's glare was directed at Leif.

"Whoa, is it really storming out?" Anne said, starting to remember how long it'd been since the last time there was weather like this in Bugaria. Before anyone could stop her, she jogged to the front door, opening it.

She was immediately hit with harsh, cold winds that could almost sweep her off her feet entirely. To make matters worse, the rain poured down hard, and that combined with the wind was a recipe for disaster. ...Yeah, it was really bad outside. Anne closed the door, turning back around, hoping she didn't get too wet. "Yep. It's storming out."

"In a storm this bad, us explorers need to help out!" Kabbu explained. "Most houses or other buildings might not be able to withstand something as nasty as this! That's why we have to go out there and make sure everything stays intact! We volunteered for this, after all!"

"I don't remember that!" Anne said, raising an eyebrow. "Since when did that happen?" She couldn't recall volunteering for anything recently.

"We all went to the association last week?" Leif asked. "To volunteer? We all even signed our names? Do you not remember this, Anne?" He sounded increasingly more worried with each question.

"Uhhhhh..." Anne looked away. Now that she thought about it, she did remember something like that...

...It was around a week ago. Team Snakemouth went to the Explorer's Association together to sign some papers and do other legal stuff that Anne didn't care about, so she put her earbuds on and turned up the music playlist on her phone to the max volume, jamming out to some of her favorite songs.

Leif and Vi weren't too interested in any paperwork as well, so they hung back, trying to avoid Anne as she listened to the music without a care in the world. This left Kabbu to do all the paperwork himself, Eetl and Artis helping him out. At some point, Artis mentioned a volunteering opportunity to Kabbu, and the green beetle immediately accepted, signing his name.

"Vi, Leif, you want to come sign this?" Kabbu asked. The two did listen to what Artis said the opportunity would be, so they decided to sign it; Vi for the chance that she might get some berries out of it, and Leif because it was his duty.

Kabbu looked over at Anne, the teenager still engrossed in her music. "Um, Anne?" Kabbu asked. "Should I sign your name for you? You're young, so I understand if you don't-"

"YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" Anne suddenly yelled, matching the lyrics to the current song. This part was her favorite, and she couldn't help but dance to the beat, knocking over a nearby table in the process. Vi yelped in surprise, stepping away from the fallen table. Thankfully there wasn't much on it, just some paper and utensils. Leif shook his head in disappointment as he watched this display.

Kabbu stared at Anne for a few moments. "Well, alright then." Kabbu turned back to the sheet before signing Anne's name.

…

Whoops. Back in the present, Anne thought about the absurdity of what she remembered, but oh well. That's what happens when she lets music consume her life.

"As much as I'd rather do anything else today, we kinda have to do this." Vi said with a huff, annoyed. "Otherwise, a bunch of stuff might get destroyed in this storm." Just how fragile were these houses? Then again, Leif and Kabbu did manage to accidently destroy a wall in Robertius's house a while back. Anne briefly imagined the rich termite's house getting swept away in the storm, followed by him trying to sue nature itself.

"Indeed." Kabbu agreed. "If it's anything like that storm over a moon cycle ago..." He grimaced, thinking about it.

Anne thought about it as well, back to the first day she'd gotten trapped in Bugaria. Forced to fend for herself without any idea what happened or where she was, or if her friends were okay. ...She still didn't know if they were, but it was as if she was trying to sleep in that cave all over again.

The rain pouring down outside, the strange noises combined with the terrifying winds... Anne didn't get a wink of sleep that night. She had to share her shelter with many wild creatures, and for all she knew, they'd try to eat her the moment she fell asleep. The next day when she tried to go back to the cave, something else was inhabiting it and currently resting, so Anne had to sneak away before it woke up.

Even if she was out of danger in the present, Anne was re-experiencing those emotions all over again. The hunger, her stomach growling for any sustenance that wasn't a spare granola bar... The fear, trying to wrap her mind around what was going on... and the sheer hopelessness of it all. The weight of these emotions dragged her down, and the last thing Anne needed was to go outside in those conditions again, what if something happened?

...That was it. Anne only then realized she stopped paying attention to whatever conversation was going on, but that didn't matter. She absolutely would not go outside while that thunderstorm still went on; even if it seemed irrational, and her friends from back home might say she's overreacting, she had to do this.

She didn't have time to think of an elaborate plan; Anne did the first thing she thought of.

"Even though the work outside might be thankless, we-" Leif began, only for Anne to forcefully cough several times, getting the others' attention. She brought her fist up to her mouth as she coughed, trying to make it convincing.

"Anne?" Vi asked in concern. "Do you still have food poisoning? Because if you do, then you lied to us!" Though she sounded upset, most of it came from Anne potentially still being sick.

Anne coughed again, shaking her head. "No..." She groaned, trying to make it sound like her nose was all stuffed up. "It went away, but..." Come on, think of an excuse. "But... I must've gotten sick again from something else!" For dramatic effect, Anne fell to her hands and knees, shutting her eyes and coughing several more times onto the floor, as if struggling not to collapse. She slightly opened one of her eyes, seeing the others have worried looks on their faces. Perfect.

"No, this can't be happening!" Without warning, Kabbu rushed over to her, Anne's eyes snapping open as the beetle put his hands on her cheeks, examining her. "How could you have gotten sick so quickly?!" He put a hand to her forehead. "Maybe it's something in the air, or you might not be reacting too well to the crystals-"

"Stop it!" Anne yelled, slapping Kabbu's hand away. It was annoying and wasn't going to help, to be frank. Even if she was sick, it wouldn't be from the crystals, the most she felt from them was a harmless tingly feeling.

"I-I'm sorry!" Kabbu apologized, stepping away and trying to calm down before things escalated further. Anne felt bad about yelling at him now. "I just want you to feel better... I hate seeing you so sick like this..."

"Listen..." Anne said, putting a hand to her chest. She gave herself a brief moment to think about what illness she would claim she had... sore throat? Nah... maybe a fever? No, then she'd probably be put in a cold bath all day... now that she thought about it, she didn't really know if this world had the same illnesses as back home... which might work to her advantage.

"I've got human stuff going on that you know nothing abou-" She coughed several more times before a horrified look of realization appeared on her face, Anne lightly grabbing her throat. "Oh no. It sounds like I've got a bad case of the... mocha lattes!" She looked up at the ceiling in faux despair.

There was a short beat of silence, Vi looking at Anne in confusion. "What?"

Kabbu let out a gasp. "Vi! Leif!" He turned around to the two bugs, urging them away from Anne. "Stay away! Anne might be contagious and I don't want anyone else getting sick!"

"But you were really close up to her, for all we know you're sick as well!" Vi pointed out, to which Vi grimaced. Anne knew this was a waste of time, there was nothing they could've caught from her anyway.

"Stop. This isn't helping anyone." Leif chastised, to which Kabbu and Vi stayed quiet. The two of them frowned. Just like yesterday, the notion of Anne being sick drove them to argue so fast... "Anne's sick, there's no way she'll be able to help us outside today." Right...

Leif walked over to Anne; the moth saddened. "Please rest up. We want you to feel better as soon as possible, okay?" Anne only gave a weak nod in response. She just had to keep the ruse up for a bit longer...

With that, the bugs began walking to the front door. "Anne, for your sake I hope you didn't get the rest of us sick." Vi said as she walked past. Anne weakly managed to stand up, waving to the others.

"Vi!" Kabbu chastised, to which Vi muttered a quick apology afterward. "Please stay safe, Anne! I promise we'll be back as soon as he can!"

"I'll try my best..." Anne said, smiling as much as she could with the pained, weak expression on her face. Kabbu, Vi, and Leif lingered for a few moments, as if wondering if they should stay in the house after all to look after Anne...

But in the end, their duty to Ant City won out, Kabbu opening the door before the three of them walked out of the house, shutting the door again before too much rain could escape into the house. And just like that... Anne was alone.

It took a few seconds for that fact to settle in.

Anne stood up straight, a wide smile on her face. "You done did it again, girl!" She exclaimed, slamming her fist against her palm. She then raised her arms to the air, cheering as she pointed her index fingers up.

Just like yesterday, it was so easy, almost comically so... who knows how many times she could fake sick with them? They'd always fall for it, wouldn't they? Anytime she didn't want to do something, all she had to do was fake sick convincingly enough, and they'd believe her, no questions asked. And since she had 'human' sicknesses, she'd also be able to convince them that there was nothing they could do and they'd just have to-

Wait, what was she thinking? Would she really take advantage of her friends like that? She already did do that twice... and that was just faking sick. Over the past month or so, Anne recalled many other times where she took advantage of Kabbu's trusting nature or roped Vi into a scheme that ended up going terribly wrong... Leif seemed to be the smart one, but even still, she got him to help her raise Domino 2.

All of this caused Anne to stop, wondering why she felt the need to do this... she shook her head; if she thought about this any longer, then she might get sick for real. Besides, she had a much more understandable excuse for faking sick today, didn't she? And what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them!

With that in mind, Anne decided to kick back, about to take full advantage of all the free time she had. They wouldn't be back for around... a few hours, right?

After making herself a quick breakfast, Anne thought about what she wanted to do while she had all this free time. The first thing that came to her mind were the crystal lights, especially after Kabbu mentioned crystals earlier. Anne never thought about it too much, but the crystals were... fascinating. She found a stepladder, using it so she could get a better look at them.

Normally, Anne would have no interest in this sort of stuff, but there was just something about these crystals that drew her in. From what she was able to observe, the yellow crystals outside rejuvenated you and also saved your "data", whatever that meant, while the blue crystals only did the latter. It seemed that over time, the yellow crystals would turn into blue crystals, slowly losing their healing properties. What did that mean? Anne had no idea. The crystals that were used as lights had none of these properties, as proven when Anne reached out and poked one of them. Hmm... were there crystals in other colors as well? And if so, what would they do?

Without warning, Anne sneezed, snapping her out of it. For a few moments there, it almost seemed like she was staring at a reflection of herself in the yellow crystal light... weird. A lot of things in Bugaria were weird.

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

Kabbu, Vi, and Leif struggled against the harsh storm, the water coming down so fast they were almost drowning in it. The rain assaulted them repeatedly, and it was nearly impossible for any of them to hear what anyone was saying over how loud the storm was.

They got to work making sure one of the less stable houses stayed upright in the storm- or they tried to, at least. They used rope to try and anchor the house in place, but Vi slipped, causing her to go flying. The bee screamed as the harsh storm carried her away, Kabbu and Leif dropping what they were doing to chase after her.

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

When messing with the lights got boring, Anne moved onto other stuff. She tested out how the sink worked, wondering if it worked the same as back home. She didn't do much though, only seeing the extent of how hot or cold the water could get, and if the garbage disposal worked. ...Hopefully nobody would notice that one of the forks went missing.

Anne then tried on some clothes that were laying neatly in some of the drawers. Hey, nobody else here wanted to wear them! Though after trying several different outfits, she eventually settled on one that fit her perfectly... only to realize that it was just her same school outfit again.

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

Kabbu yelped as debris from the storm nearly hit him, the beetle ducking at the last second. For some reason, an entire FAMILY of bugs decided to go outside for a picnic right before the storm started... and their house was all the way on the other side of Ant City. Leif wasn't with him, the moth still struggling to get Vi back before the rapid winds consumed her entirely.

Thankfully, Kabbu was able to keep the family safe on his own, despite how weak and exhausted he felt. He ignored that though, intent on making sure that this family got home safe and sound!

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

Anne took a 'bath' with the limited cleaning supplies she had, painted her nails, and freshened up a bit over the next hour or so. In her excitement over being at the house alone, Anne decided to dance on the dining table, regretting that decision moments later as the table started to tip over, Anne screaming as she fell to the ground.

But she was okay! She made sure to set the table back up afterward, though. And nothing broke either, which was good. Her stomach grumbled. Was it time for lunch already? ...Absolutely.

Anne fixed up a quick lunch for herself, also setting up a movie to watch on her phone. It took a few minutes, but she found something she hadn't watched yet, holding the phone in one hand to watch the movie while her food was in a bowl on her lap.

"Cynthia, my abs..." the guy onscreen said, clutching his button-up shirt tightly, as if terrified. There was a woman, Cynthia, who looked at him in worry. "They've been..." The guy ripped his shirt open, exposing his bare chest. "AB-DUCTED!" The camera zoomed in, and the guy's abs were nowhere to be seen.

The camera cut to Cynthia, who had her hands on her cheeks as she screamed, shock written all over her face.

"Ab-Snatchers!" An announcer said, the logo for the movie appearing onscreen. "II!"

Anne swallowed the food that was in her mouth, using her utensil to get another bite. "Best. Decision. Ever!" This had the same thrill as faking sick back home! She did wonder how Kabbu, Vi, and Leif were doing in that storm, though.

A distinctive click of the door unlocking-

As fast as she could, Anne turned off her phone, moving it and her food aside as she grabbed a nearby blanket in case this happened, and wrapped it around herself, making her face look like she was as sick as a dog as she only left her head exposed outside of the blanket-

Kabbu, Vi, and Leif walked into the house right as Anne resumed her façade. The door slowly shut behind them, none of them closing it themselves for some reason.

"Oh... You're back?" Anne weakly said, clutching her blanket. "I hope you got along well without-" Anne stopped in her tracks; as she got another look at them... aside from the water dripping off all of them... they looked absolutely miserable. "Whoa, are you guys okay?" Anne asked, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be faking sick.

Vi's eyes were shut, the bee shivering. "I-" Vi started coughing, causing Anne to cringe. The coughing stopped. "My-" She coughed a few more times, bending over. "I can't-" Vi sounded frustrated even through her coughs, which sounded awful.

The relentless coughing finally stopped for a moment. "I can't open my eyes!" Vi yelled in frustration, looking at no one in particular. She pointed at her eyes, which were swelling. No wonder she couldn't open them! Vi opened her mouth to speak- only to be forced into another coughing fit; at this point it sounded like she was outright heaving.

Kabbu leaned against the front door, taking deep breaths. He wiped beads of sweat off his forehead, looking dazed. "Is it just me..." Kabbu said slowly, in between breaths. "Or is it really hot in here? I feel so... incredibly warm." At first Anne thought Kabbu had gotten the worst of the rain, but that wasn't water pouring down his body, it was sweat. Did he have a bad fever?

After a few seconds, Kabbu tried to push himself off the door to fully stand up, but he yelped as he stumbled forward, immediately losing his balance. Before he could faceplant onto the floor, Leif acted fast, grabbing Kabbu by the arm and pulling him back up.

"Thank you..." Kabbu said in-between deep breaths, the beetle swaying slightly. Before Leif could react, Kabbu wrapped his arms around the moth and clung to him like glue, refusing to let go as he closed his eye, mumbling about how good Leif's coldness felt.

Anne gave Leif a look, wondering what his symptoms would be. ...Aside from the normal stuff.

"Oh, we didn't get sick." Leif casually explained, shaking his head. Well, that was a relief.

Kabbu let out a weak groan, his grip on Leif becoming tighter by the second. How was he able to do that with how weak he was? "Vi and I... must've come down with something..." Kabbu mumbled, having trouble speaking or even having coherent thoughts. "And uh..." He started to say something else, only to trail off, humming.

"Huh?" Vi asked, having heard her name. "Who said that?" She turned around repeatedly and walked around, trying to find the source of the noise- before she bumped her head into the wall. "OW!" That must've hurt. The bee coughed several more times.

"It was brutal out there." Leif said, appearing to shake at the mere thought of it. "We're not going to go into detail, but it's a good thing you stayed inside. Sure, we probably would've have gotten everything taken care of much faster with your help, but none of us wanted you to get sicker than you already are."

As Leif explained this, he tried lightly pushing Kabbu off of him, the beetle grunting in defiance. Kabbu's feverish warmth must've been too much for Leif; plus, the moth didn't want to get sick as well. Despite that, Kabbu hung on for dear life, Leif eventually giving up for the moment.

Anne nervously looked away, still clutching her blanket tightly. "Yep... sicker..." She bit her lip, guilt swarming her all over, like a bunch of mosquitos near a pool. If she would've gotten over her dumb fears earlier, then they would've spent much less time outside, and then Kabbu and Vi wouldn't have gotten sick. It wasn't the "fun" kind of sickness either, where you could just laze around, watch tv and eat ice cream for the next few days. A fever was always awful, and Anne had never seen someone's eyes swell up like that before... plus, that cough was awful.

"Kabbu, please." Leif said. "You're sweating all over us." He tried pushing Kabbu off him again, the beetle whining as he finally conceded, stepping away as he regained some semblance of balance.

"Sorry..." There were a few tears in Kabbu's eye.

Leif frowned, wondering if he regretted his decision. "Well, since we're the only one not sick..." Leif winced for a split second, trying to hide it. "We're gonna take... take care..." Despite Leif appearing fine, he slowly sounded more strained, as if he was in great pain. Anne worried about what would happen next.

Without warning, Leif doubled over, letting out a gasp as his wings parted. His body became a darker shade of blue than usual as he clutched his chest, agony written all over his face-

Not a moment later, Leif's eyes shut tightly as the floor around him got frozen over with ice, causing Kabbu and Vi to slip to the ground. Anne winced, the house immediately feeling much colder than usual.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Vi screamed, coughing and heaving multiple times afterward.

Leif slowly opened his eyes, no longer appearing to be in much pain. He blinked a few times, seeing what happened.

"...Shoot."

Kabbu slowly managed to sit up, groaning from the sheer effort it took. "Oh no, Leif... not you too..." Kabbu weakly said, panting. Thankfully, the ice already started to melt, so Kabbu pushed himself up to his feet in one motion, only to become too exhausted to keep standing, reaching over and clinging to Leif again.

Anne immediately stood up off the couch, letting her blanket fall to the floor. "Wait, so you're all sick?!" Anne asked, worried about the well-being of her friends. She didn't even think about trying to keep up her facade, but that was the last thing on her mind right now.

With the ice mostly gone, Vi stood up, coughing multiple times before she was able to speak. "It sure looks that way." She sighed, sticking her arms out as she blindly walked around the house... not realizing that she was heading directly for the trash can.

Before Anne could say anything, Kabbu spoke up first. "Vi, no!" The beetle practically launched himself off of Leif to try and get to Vi. "That's the-WHOA!" Kabbu yelped as he lost his balance, stumbling backward before he crashed into the nearby shelf, causing most of its contents to fall on top of Kabbu as he collapsed to the floor. Thankfully the shelf didn't fall over entirely.

Anne cringed at seeing all this, but it only got worse.

"...We feel like we're about to throw up." Leif admitted as he walked over to the sink. "We'll just..." He opened a nearby cabinet and reached inside, grabbing an empty cup before turning the sink on, letting the cup fill up with water. He then put the cup to his lips-

Only for the cup to freeze solid. Leif sighed in disappointment, swaying slightly.

"Being sick sucks." Vi groaned, deciding to just sit down where she was before she crashed into something like Kabbu did. "Who's gonna-" COUGH "Take care of us? We clearly can't take care of ourselves!"

"Isn't there a doctor here or something?" Anne asked, nervous and anxious. "...You guys have doctors here, right?" Considering what other weird differences were in this world, Anne had to be ready for the worst.

"We do... but she's not in Ant City at the moment." Leif answered, looking a little queasy. "She had a family emergency; she won't be back for a few weeks." ...Of course. Just their luck.

Kabbu groaned in pain, struggling but failing to get up. "One of us... someone will have to go out in the rain to the Explorer's Association..." Kabbu trailed off for a moment, struggling to think of what to say. "To make a request... to see if there's anyone else that can take care of us. Oooogh..." Kabbu laid his head down on the floor, having pretty much no energy left to even lift his head.

"There's no need for that." The words were already out of Anne's mouth before she could change her mind, the teen walking over to Kabbu. There was no way she'd let them suffer like this, especially when this was all her fault.

Anne helped get some off the stuff from the shelf off of Kabbu, moving it aside. "I'll take care of you guys." She reached her hands down to Kabbu, the beetle slowly lifting his arms so she could grab them. His arms were really hot, just how bad was his fever?

"But Anne, you're sick too!" Kabbu said as Anne slowly helped him stand up. After a couple tries, Leif walked over to help them.

Anne's eyes snapped open; did any of them notice that she hadn't been keeping up her ruse? She should come clean... but she didn't want them to be upset at her while they were already sick, which was why she turned her head to the side and fake-coughed again before she and Leif finally managed to get Kabbu to stand up.

"Sure am, buddy." Anne lied. "But you're all way more important to me." She gestured to everyone, including Vi who was still sitting down in the middle of the floor. "...Plus, you all took care of me when I had food poisoning yesterday."

Lies, lies, so many lies being stacked on top of each other. And sooner or later, they were all bound to collapse, weren't they? Anne tried to ignore that; ignore the impending feeling of doom deep within her, trying to just focus on making sure her friends were okay.

"Thanks for returning the favor, Anne." Vi said, sounding genuine.

"This is uncharacteristically generous of you." Leif added with a light chuckle.

Anne tried not to look so nervous. "Oh, you know, I do what I can." Anne shrugged. "Now let's get you all better!" She cheered, pumping a fist into the air.

A split second later, Kabbu lost his balance again, slipping to the floor. Anne cringed.

...After Leif helped Kabbu stand up again, Anne got to work. No matter what, she would help Kabbu, Vi, and Leif until they got better. First, Anne put on some yellow kitchen gloves and tied her hair back with a bandana. This was so her hair wouldn't get in the way, and the gloves helped to make sure no cross-contamination happened. The last thing Anne needed was to get sick for real.

Leif helped Kabbu move to the side so Anne could pick up everything that fell and put it back on the shelf... there was a high chance that some stuff was in the wrong place, but whatever. Good, now nobody could trip over it.

Kabbu's fever was the most pressing of the three's sickness; she needed to take care of that first. Anne grabbed two towels; a large and smaller one. She turned on the sink and ran the towels over with cold water, while occasionally looking back and making sure that nothing happened to the others.

During this, Vi got up and started to walk around again, still coughing and still unable to see. She yelped when she ran into Kabbu and Leif. "Oi, watch it!"

"Sorry Vi, didn't see you..." Kabbu mumbled.

Right, Vi's swelling needed to be taken care of as well. Anne opened several cabinets, sifting through them before- "Aha!" Anne found what she was looking for, some eye medicine. She remembered seeing earlier while she was looking through the cabinets.

Anne grabbed the eye medicine, pocketing it. "Vi, Leif, sit down on the couch." Anne said, pointing in the general direction of the couch while still focusing on the sink. "I'll be there in a few minutes." She fake-coughed again to keep up her ruse.

"Right." Leif nodded. He helped Kabbu steady himself, the beetle leaning against the wall as to not lose his balance for the umpteenth time.

"Hey, I don't know where the couch is!" Vi yelled, frustrated.

"We'll lead you there, don't worry." Leif said, placing a hand on Vi's shoulder as he started to guide her to the couch. "We need to go slow so we don't throw up, so please bear with us!"

Vi yelled something to Leif about how he better not throw up on her, but Anne wasn't paying attention at that point, trying not to lose track of what she was doing. Vi and Leif sat down on the couch.

The towels were sufficiently cold and wet by now, so Anne turned off the water, grabbing the towels and taking a minute to squeeze the excess water off of them so they wouldn't make a mess on the floor. Kabbu groaned, and Anne tried to hurry up.

"Coming!" Anne said, walking over to Kabbu with the towels. There was still a little bit of water dripping, but whatever. She helped him stand upright, the beetle taking a second to steady himself. "Lean your head back a little." Anne said, preparing the small towel.

Kabbu did as she said, tilting his head back slightly as he closed his eye. "This might be a bit cold, but it'll help bring your fever down." Anne didn't have any thermometers, but no matter how high Kabbu's temp was, having a fever could be dangerous.

Anne gently placed the cold, damp towel on Kabbu's forehead, making sure it wouldn't slide off. Kabbu shivered slightly upon first contact, the beetle then giggling afterward. "It's so cold! And ticklish!" Kabbu said.

The fever was already making Kabbu out of it, as if it wasn't evident already. Anne would have Kabbu and Leif sit together to cool Kabbu down, but there was the chance that Leif would accidentally freeze Kabbu or throw up on him. No more risk-taking; just stick to what was safe.

"Lift up your arms." Anne said as she knelt to the ground. Kabbu complied, slowly raising his arms as much as he could. Once she had room, Anne began wrapping the larger towel around Kabbu's waist.

"Anne, have you seen any cute guys around?" Kabbu asked completely out of the blue. ...If he wasn't sick, Anne might've pushed him down for making a comment about her dating life like that.

"No?" Anne raised an eyebrow. She reminded herself that Kabbu wasn't thinking clearly because of his fever and excused his question as she tied the towel around his waist so it wouldn't fall.

Kabbu let out a sigh as Anne stood up, guiding him to the couch. "Aw man..." Kabbu pouted. "I haven't seen any either..."

Oh. Anne completely misinterpreted what he'd been asking. She had no idea Kabbu swung that way, but alright then. "That's nice." Anne helped Kabbu sit down on the couch, the beetle sitting next to Vi. "Be sure to keep your head leaned back, that towel needs to stay on."

Kabbu gave Anne a thumbs up.

Now that he was taken care of, it was Vi's turn. "Alright." Anne took the eye drops out of her pocket. "It's time for some eye drops, Vi." They looked to be generic brand eye drops from the nearby store; they should work fine.

"Uh, WHAT?" Vi yelled right in Anne's face. "There's no way I'm taking drops!" Even while sick, Vi still was defiant. Anne frowned, taking the time to think while Vi coughed a few times. She knew that the swelling in Vi's eyes was painful, and the sickness wasn't letting Vi think clearly... which was all the more reason to give her the drops.

"Taking drops always sucks, but you need this!" Anne said, trying to get Vi to comply. Anne quickly turned her head to the side and fake-coughed.

"No!" Vi argued, attempting to get away. She didn't get far, as Kabbu and Leif grabbed her arms and held her down, Vi trying to squirm out of their grips. ...Okay, this was getting ridiculous.

Anne aimed the drops above one of Vi's swollen eyes, waiting for just the right moment before... she squeezed a drop in. The moment the liquid breached past her eyelid, Vi froze, relaxing. Anne moved to put a drop in the other eye-

"Oi!" COUGH "Gimme that thing!" Vi suddenly snatched the bottle of eye drops out of Anne's hand. Before Anne could take it back, Vi brought the eye drops to one of her swollen eyes, squirting a bunch of the liquid past the eyelids, before doing the same for the other eye moments later.

"Sweet relief..." Vi sighed, even as a lot of the liquid spilled onto the couch. Anne took the bottle back... it was empty. Well, at least it seemed to help a bit.

Leif loudly groaned, holding his stomach. "Can we have something to eat, please?"

"Are you sure?" Anne asked, frowning. "What if you throw it all up?"

"We're really hungry, please..." Leif grunted, Anne immediately feeling bad for even questioning his request. "Something light will be fine."

Anne nodded, walking to the kitchen area. It didn't take her long to decide what to make; a simple sandwich ought to do the trick. With the stuff they had lying around, Anne made a sandwich in only two minutes, bringing it over to Leif.

"Here, try not to eat it too fast." Anne said as she handed the food to the blue moth. Leif nodded, grabbing the sandwich- only for it to freeze solid in his hands.

"Sorry." Leif grimaced as he gave the frozen sandwich back.

"No biggie. I'll make another one." Anne threw out the sandwich and made a new one, bringing it to him a minute later. She was about to hand it to him until she saw his hands shaking slightly; if he couldn't control his powers while he was sick, maybe he shouldn't be handling stuff.

"Is it alright if I feed it to you?" Anne asked. Leif nodded, opening his mouth wide. Anne brought the sandwich to Leif's mouth, the moth taking a small bite of the food.

"Mmm." Leif chewed and then swallowed the food. "Tasty. We told you that you're good with food and cooking, so you better still believe it."

Anne chuckled, remembering the first time Leif and the others tried her cooking. That was when the whole incident with Alex happened... how were Fry and Alex doing now, anyway?

It took several minutes for Leif to finish his sandwich, Anne using a napkin afterward to wipe any crumbs off. She threw the napkin away, fake-coughing a few more times to make sure nobody suspected anything. Though she'd taken care of their needs... with how sick they were, Anne couldn't just leave them alone after doing one thing.

This was going to be a long day.

Over the next several hours, Anne spent nearly every waking moment taking care of Kabbu, Vi, and Leif. She forced herself to take a quick break to make a quick lunch for herself but aside from that, she tended to their every need, making sure they'd get better as soon as possible.

And when they didn't need Anne actively doing something, the teen cleaned up the house, decontaminating everything. After this, they were going to need more cleaning supplies, that's for sure. Anne replaced Kabbu's towels multiple times, she did whatever she could to soothe Vi's eyes, and tried to mitigate Leif's ice magic going haywire. She also helped them walk to the bathroom and generally tried to keep them as comfortable as possible despite how ill they were.

Eventually, Anne checked her phone; the time said 10pm. Unlike the times when she stayed up until 3am when she was sick, Anne would make sure they got plenty of rest. "Okay guys, let's get up so-" Anne was going to help them to their beds since Anne just finished making sure the beds were clean...

But on the couch, the three of them looked fast asleep, all of them snuggling onto each other.

"Aww..." Anne cooed. After snapping a picture of this adorable moment, Anne grabbed a blanket from one of the beds, draping it over them as they slept. She felt bad, despite sitting in one place for most of the day, they looked so exhausted...

Her work wasn't done yet. Despite feeling exhausted herself, Anne knew she had another tiring day ahead tomorrow. The rain stopped hours ago, but the doctor still wouldn't be back for... weeks, was it? Oh geez...

After making herself a quick snack, she got to work on making them breakfast for tomorrow. This particular recipe was a bit complicated, but Anne could make it work. She was able to cook, she could do this! She stayed up past midnight getting it together, Anne nearly falling asleep a few times... but somehow got a boost of energy when thinking about her friends' well-being.

...Wait, it was past midnight?! Anne examined the three bowls of food she made... they looked good enough. Anne put them away, storing them for tomorrow morning before she took off the kitchen gloves and bandana, reminding herself that they needed to be washed thoroughly.

Anne turned off the lights, practically collapsing into her bed... only to stay awake for probably another hour or so, tossing and turning. With no other sounds to occupy her thoughts, she was left with only the crushing, unending guilt of lying to her friends over and over. Even when helping them get better, she still lied to them. Lie lie lie, just how many times had she lied in the past week alone?

Somehow, Anne did manage to sleep a bit... perhaps having one of her strangest dreams ever.

She didn't know how the dream started, but Robertius was standing in front of her, under the guise of 'Robert'. He didn't say anything, merely standing there, giving her a disapproving look. His body seemingly crumbled away, revealing what should've been Robertius... but his form was hard to make out; it was all wobbly and hard to see. Anne strained her eyes, taking a step forward-

Only for her foot to land on nothing, Anne screaming as she fell into a massive fissure that she didn't see before-

Anne's eyes snapped open, scrambling to check her phone and see what time it was. 3am. Despite only having vague recollections of most of her dreams, she remembered that one very clearly. Ugh, hopefully all this weird stuff would clear up soon.

When her 6am alarm went off, Anne wasn't quite sure if she managed to get more sleep after her weird dream. Regardless, Anne took the three bowls of soupy breakfast out of storage, taking a few hours to clean up the dining table and put any finishing touches on the breakfast, time somehow slowing to a crawl and yet speeding by at the same time.

After that, it was only around 8am. Anne sat down on her bed, taking a few moments for herself. She was evidently anxious, tapping her foot on the ground repeatedly, absentmindedly running her thumb over her fingers... she didn't want to wake the others up too early, and there wasn't anything else she could do right now.

Before she realized how much time had passed, Leif woke up first, blinking his eyes a few times. Anne stood up at attention, walking over to the couch. "Leif! How's it hanging?"

"...We still feel terrible." Leif groaned. Anne frowned. "Did you make something?" Leif asked.

"Mhm. You think you can stomach it?" Anne asked, remembering the unfortunate incident yesterday evening when Leif ate a little too much and then threw up.

"We'll try our best." Leif half-heartedly chuckled. With that, he took the blanket off himself, attempting to stand up off the couch. Anne immediately rushed in to help him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder as she guided him to the dining table.

"You didn't have to go through all this trouble for us, Anne." Leif said. "Especially since you're still sick too."

Shoot, she nearly forgot about that- Anne turned her head away from Leif and fake-coughed a few times. "Well, if I didn't... then who else would?" Anne asked. It was true, she was the only one all of them could rely on... They were counting on her.

Anne helped Leif sit down in his chair, Leif taking a few moments to get himself settled. During this, Anne noticed that Kabbu and Vi were waking up as well, the teen walking over to help them as well. Both of them were still just as sick as yesterday, which was a bit... discouraging, but the breakfast she prepared would hopefully change everything.

Just as she did with Leif, Anne helped Kabbu and Vi over to the dining table one at a time, making sure they were as comfortable as possible. The three bugs seemed to like the smell of the soupy breakfast, so her fingers were crossed that it would help them feel better as well.

But there were a few... issues, though. It took a few tries for Leif to be able to eat the food without freezing his spoon (thankfully he never froze the breakfast itself), Kabbu had trouble getting the energy to lift the spoon to his mouth, and Vi outright needed Anne's help since she still couldn't see anything. After guiding Vi for the first few bites, the bee was eventually able to do it on her own, developing a pattern.

For the next few minutes, Anne stood back, waiting patiently as the three slowly ate their soupy breakfast. Please work, please work, please work... Only then she realized she hadn't had breakfast yet, but she could make something for herself later.

"So... feeling any better?" Anne tentatively asked.

Silence.

Leif shook his head a couple times; Vi coughed, and Kabbu started rubbing the cold spoon all over his body to try and cool himself down. Even if none of them said anything, it was clear the answer was a resounding no.

"Ugh, come on!" Anne said, frustrated as she threw her arms up in the air. "There's got to be a way to get you guys- and myself better!" She exclaimed before fake-coughing a few more times. Just what would it take? ...Time? If had to come to that, then she could wait it out...

"I can't explore and get treasure if I can't see anything!" Vi yelled in frustration as she slammed her fist onto the table. If it wasn't a really bad time right now, Anne would've pointed out how blind people were able to adapt to their lack of sight.

Leif let out another loud, strained groan. "We just want to curl up into a ball and sleep forever." He admitted, not realizing that his chair was now frozen over.

"Oh! Oh! I know how to get us better!" Kabbu suddenly declared.

"You do?" Anne gasped, hopeful, wondering what this new solution would be.

"Yeah yeah! Just get the Everlasting Sapling, that ought to do the trick!" Kabbu cheered, Anne only now realizing that he was even more out of it than yesterday, the beetle barely able to think clearly at all.

Anne facepalmed; there's obviously no way she could just find the Everlasting Sapling randomly to get them better. That's what the artifact hunt was for, wasn't it? To find clues to the supposed 'Everlasting Sapling', if it even existed at all. Anne groaned, trying to think of another way to help her friends feel better when-

-There was a loud knock at the door.

"Coming!" Anne walked to the front door, opening it to see an ant guard standing there. "What's up?" Anne asked, not sure why the guard was at the house. Rent wasn't due today, was it? Not that Anne didn't have the funds to pay it, it was just that she remembered someone coming by to collect rent a few days ago.

"Good morning, Anne of Team Snakemouth." The ant guard greeted. "This is just a customary check-in to make sure that your team is in fighting shape for the mission to the Golden Hills."

Anne froze on the spot, tensing up as she was more than aware of how not in fighting shape they were. She tried to hide her nervousness as she casually leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms. "Psssh, of course we are! Why wouldn't we be?" She lied, adding another one on top of the dozen or she already had stacked up.

"Very well, just as expected." The ant guard nodded. "As you know, you will be expected to set out for the mission within a few days, or else the Queen will have to re-assign another exploration team to the mission, such as Team Ant or Team Mothiva."

"Well, it's a good thing you don't have to worry about that!" Anne said, an over-the-top cheery smile on her face. The last thing she needed was another team re-assigned to the mission; the disappointment her team would inevitably face would be too much, especially if they realized it was her fault. In the worst-case scenario, she could probably trust Team Ant with the mission... but she had no clue who Team Mothiva was.

"Because everything's going great!" Anne added, hoping the ant guard would leave so she could have time to figure something out.

Her smile disappeared when she heard a CRASH from within the house, Anne freezing up.

"Uh... what was that?" The ant guard asked, confused.

She started to peer into the house- "Oh that must be Kabbu doing some last-minute training yeah that's totally it!" Anne quickly said the first thing she thought of, slamming the door shut a moment later before the ant guard could say anything else.

Anne ignored the ant guard knocking on the door again as she ran over to the dining table, her heart pounding at imagining several possibilities as to what kind of catastrophe could've happened in the minute or so she wasn't paying attention. Well... it was worse than she thought.

Much worse.

The half-eaten soup was all over the place, one of the bowls on Vi's head. If that wasn't enough, the entire table was frozen over, Leif audibly shivering. And Kabbu was laying down on the icy table, rolling over on it while groaning, the coldness very pleasant to him. Vi coughed, the bowl of soup falling off her head and crashing to the ground.

"We might throw up... fair warning." Leif groaned, tossing aside a spoon that he accidentally froze.

Anne stared at the scene in shock, her mouth agape. She left them alone for a minute or two, if even that long. It was obvious that there was no way they could be left to their own devices in this state.

"This is a disaster!" Was the first thing out of Anne's mouth, the teen's hands on the side of her head. It would take hours to clean this up! And even worse... They were all expected to leave on their next mission in a few days.

"A few days? A few days?" Anne repeated out loud to herself in exasperation. "There's no way they'll get better in a few days!" The urgency of the situation made her completely forget that she was 'supposed' to be sick as well, but whatever. At best, they might start to feel better in a week, and at worst... "Nope. Not even gonna think about that possibility." Anne shook her head.

Time was running out.

"I've gotta do something!" But what? Taking care of them wasn't going to get them better any faster, and she couldn't think clearly, her thoughts racing a million miles an hour. "Is there anything you guys can think of to get yourselves better faster?!" She remembered Kabbu asking her the same question a couple days ago when she faked having food poisoning. Oh, the irony...

Kabbu raised his head slightly to say something-

"No, the Everlasting Sapling doesn't count!" Anne snapped before he could answer, her patience growing thin. Why did she even ask them? They were too sick and out of it to give her coherent answers, as evident when they all groaned in pain a few moments later.

Anne groaned as well, feeling bad for yelling at Kabbu. Okay, she needed to take a step back, take a deep breath, and think. This world had all sorts of crazy stuff, so there had to be something. She racked her brain, trying to come up with some sort of impossible solution. Maybe a yellow crystal? Their rejuvenating properties could... No, there weren't any nearby. Or... drat, that was the only thing she could think of-

Kabbu had a book out, flipping through it- he explained that it was a book of potential cures in Bugaria-

Of course! It was as if a lightbulb went off in Anne's head; that was it! A few days ago, Kabbu was going through a book he had, trying to... see if there were any cures for Anne's 'illness.' The guilt crashed over her all over again. Even if he couldn't find a cure for food poisoning, there had to be something in there for what the three of them were going through, right?

The only problem was that Anne had no idea where Kabbu stored the book. She glanced over at the others, having a feeling that asking them where the book was wouldn't give her any satisfactory answers... so she'd have to look for it herself.

Anne sifted through all the drawers she could find, remembering which ones didn't have any books or stuff like that in them from when she was fooling around yesterday. Another pang of guilt.

Curiously, Anne found a drawer that didn't open no matter how much she jiggled the handle; was it locked? Hm... well whatever was inside, it probably wasn't her business.

After several tedious minutes of searching, Anne finally found it. The book she was looking for; thankfully not too heavy. "Yes!" It was a book of cures. Just as she hoped for. Anne glanced at the others to make sure another catastrophe didn't happen before she sat down on the couch, hurriedly flipping through the book.

"Come on, come on..." There was absolutely nothing she recognized, and even then, some of it was in languages she didn't understand, the words appearing as gibberish to her. Plus, most of the text she did understand didn't make a lot of sense. Kabbu was right, some of this stuff downright seemed fake... but there had to be something.

Even some of the stuff that sounded legit was too good to be true; they were all in faraway places she'd never even heard of, such as the 'Forsaken Lands' or the 'Eastern Lands'. Anne grew frustrated; couldn't she just have some good luck for once?!

She flipped past several more pages, only to stop and flip back a few pages, trying to return to something that caught her eye. She reread the page... "Aha! This is it!" Anne cheered, elated. Finally!

The page depicted a root that apparently grows in a small cave near water near the east end of the outskirts, even having a small illustration of where the cave was. The book claimed that the root would be able to cure nearly any disease or illness upon consumption. Anne almost felt like doing a dance, her heart racing from excitement, but those emotions turned sour as she read the rest of the page.

"Wait, it's endangered?!" Anne yelled. It only got worse. There was a footnote about how the root might not work if left out improperly, and that it could only grow and flourish toward the end of a moon cycle... on one specific day.

"Are you kidding me?" Anne questioned. "I don't know what part of the moon cycle it is?!" She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Ugh, why can't this place just use months like back home?" Anne had no idea if the cycles of the moon were even the same here as back home, so she had absolutely no frame of reference...

Which meant that she just had to hope that the stupid root would grow today.

Anne set the book aside and stood up off the couch, her determination clear. As far as she was concerned, she only had one chance. One chance to save her friends.

Without missing a beat, Anne walked over to the dining table, grabbing a few towels. She helped Kabbu sit back down; she cleaned everyone up and made sure to put away the bowls. There, and it only took a few minutes.

"Okay, we've gotta go right now!" Anne called, clapping her hands multiple times.

"Go where...? Can't we just lay down?" Leif groaned, struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Nope!" Anne shook her head. "I found a cure so we have to go! Now!" She wished she could be more patient, but time was of the essence. She couldn't leave them here and get it herself, because ripping it out of the ground and leaving it out might ruin its healing properties, and even then she didn't trust leaving them home alone sick for a while.

"Finally!" Vi groaned, getting up. "Come on, let's go ahead and-" She turned and walked toward what she thought was the front door, only to hit the wall. "OW!" She stumbled backward, falling onto the floor.

"Yay! Let's go go go!" Kabbu said, not really understanding what was going on. He thrusted his arms into the air and started to lean back in his chair, only for it to tip over too much, Kabbu falling backward onto the ground with a CRASH!

"Well, we may as well get it over with." Leif groaned, attempting to stand up- only for part of the floor to be frozen over with ice, causing Leif to yelp as he slipped and fell. "Ooooogh... nevermind..."

"Guys!" Anne said, rushing to help Kabbu stand up. "We've gotta GO!" She did the same with Vi and Leif, Anne moving faster than she thought possible as she tried to push all three of them out the front door. "Come ON!"

"Huh? On what? Where are we going?!" Kabbu yelled, flailing his arms, accidentally hitting Vi.

"Stop that!" Vi yelled, trying to swipe at whoever hit her before she doubled over, coughing again.

"Don't cough on us!" Leif tried to swipe Vi away with his hand, only for a wave of ice magic to come out of his arm, flying to a nearby shelf and freezing it. "Sorry."

Anne groaned loudly; she managed to push the others over to the front door, but she couldn't reach over to open it. "Come on guys, let me just-"

The door unexpectedly opened, Kabbu, Vi, and Leif falling outside in a heap. Oops. Anne must've not closed the door all the way earlier when the ant guard came by... at least she was gone now. Anne cringed, stepping over the others to get outside before she shook them, trying to get them to stand up. "Guys, come on! We can't get to the cure if you're just laying there!"

They weren't listening, the three of them only mumbling and groaning. Was their sickness getting worse? Anne wanted to have patience for them, but she couldn't afford to waste another second. Dread and desperation grew within her, Anne realizing that there's no way she'd be able to get them to the endangered root in a reasonable amount of time unless another miracle occurred.

She heard something nearby. Anne swiveled her head around to see a mosquito with a wheelbarrow full of stuff, an idea immediately forming in her head.

"Sir, excuse me!"

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

Several minutes later, Anne managed to buy the wheelbarrow off the mosquito, Anne specifying that she only wanted the wheelbarrow itself. The mosquito thankfully accepted her offer after she explained the situation she was in, and the mosquito walked off, carrying his stuff with him.

Wasting absolutely no time, Anne hurried and helped Kabbu, Vi, and Leif get into the wheelbarrow. Thankfully it was big enough for the three of them, and apparently the mosquito left some rope in the wheelbarrow when he bought it from Anne. Was that a mistake? Eh, who knows.

What mattered was that Anne was going to help her friends get better.

She stood in front of the wheelbarrow with her back to it, kneeling down to grab the handle before lifting it up- crap, it was heavy. Anne gritted her teeth, using all her strength to pull the wheelbarrow behind her as she began her journey, hoping she remembered exactly where the root would be.

"If you guys can't get yourselves there, there I'll have to get you there myself!" It was the last resort, there was nothing else Anne could do. Otherwise, they'd be stuck at home sick with no mission to go on, and Leif would have no way of getting any answers.

"This is fun!" Kabbu cheered, giggling.

"Where are we going?!" Vi asked, confused. Right, Anne never told any of them where the cure was... but she would get there, no matter how long it took.

It was over a half an hour of back-breaking labor later that Anne finally reached her destination. She had to walk slow as to not pass out herself, and she wouldn't let herself stop for a second, not when her friends were on the line. But she made it. She was here, well... sort of.

The cave was on the east side of the Bugaria Outskirts, just as the book said. The cave entrance was at the bottom of a cliff, but... Anne had forgotten about the large body of water around the cave, and after testing it with a nearby pebble, the water was way too deep for her to walk through... shoot. Had she made it all this way only to fail at the last moment?

"No... I was so close..." Anne said, closing her eyes. She thought of the obvious solution moments later, hope rising up once again. "Oh! Leif! Leif Leif Leif!" Anne repeated the moth's name multiple times as she ran over to him, seeing him trying to get a little bit of rest in the wheelbarrow.

Anne felt bad for doing this, but she shook him slightly to wake him up, Leif grumbling. "...Huh?" He blinked a few times.

"Leif! Can you freeze over part of this water so I can get you guys across?" Anne asked, pointing at the water.

"Uhh... we can try..." Leif groaned, struggling to try and sit up. If there was another option then Anne would do that in a heartbeat, but here she had no other choice.

Anne watched as Leif finally sat up, raising his arm. The tips of his fingers sparkled with the usual ice magic, Leif straining himself to try and concentrate... only to freeze a large, nearby weed instead. "Argh... Sorry Anne..."

"That's okay! Just give it one more try! I know you can do it!" Anne encouraged. That seemed to give Leif a bit of extra spirit, the moth raising his arm again, this time trying his best to point it directly at the water-

Leif cried out, a sudden spike of pain in his chest. He clutched his chest with his free hand as his ice magic unleashed itself from his hand on its own, Anne yelping as the beam hit the lake... freezing it over entirely. Anne was expecting to have to traverse a path of ice to get inside, but this was much better!

"Woohoo!" Anne cheered, proud. She turned to the blue moth. "Leif, you..." Anne trailed off, watching Leif lean his head over the side of the wheelbarrow as he threw up, emptying the contents of his stomach from this morning. Anne looked away, not wanting to become nauseous herself. Poor Leif... he and the others would be better real soon; Anne knew that for sure.

Once Leif finished throwing up, Anne grabbed the wheelbarrow again, preparing herself. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes... "You're almost there, Anne. Just a bit more..." Opening her eyes, she carefully began to walk on the ice.

"Oooo, ice!" Kabbu said, leaning over and seeing his reflection in the ice. "It's gonna get all slippery!"

Anne would've ignored Kabbu's remarks born from delirium, but she realized too late how much truth this one held. The moment the wheelbarrow's wheels made contact with the ice, everything went to chaos.

The ice made it impossible for the wheelbarrow to stay in place despite Anne's efforts, causing it to jerk back and forth, everyone inside the wheelbarrow crashing against each other. Anne tried to straighten it out, she began slipping on the ice as well, the teen screaming as it devolved into the wheelbarrow spinning in circles, Anne gripping the handles for dear life, having absolutely no control over the wheelbarrow anymore.

The others screamed right as the wheelbarrow smashed into one of the cliff walls, causing it to break into several pieces that flew everywhere. Everyone collapsed onto the ice, groaning in pain. So much pain... everything happened so fast that Anne didn't even know what happened at first.

"What..." Anne's head spun, just like the wheel that was spinning... in front of her... Anne gasped in horror, her brain catching up to the events that just unfolded as she stood up, nearly slipping. "Oh no! The wheelbarrow! No wonder that guy gave it to me for so cheap..."

After getting her bearings, Anne stood up, trying to make sense of the situation. "Is everyone okay?" She was so close, right there, and yet, the cave entrance still seemed so far away...

"What do you think?" Leif asked, sarcasm laced in his tone. Yeah, maybe Anne deserved that one.

"Let's go again! Let's go again!" Kabbu cheered.

"We're-" COUGH "Not going again!" Vi yelled back.

The wheelbarrow was destroyed... so just how was Anne going to get everyone to the root? She already had a feeling that trying to get them to walk on their own on ice would end in complete disaster, so that was out of the question. Hmmm...

When Anne saw the long rope from the wheelbarrow laying on the icy ground, yet another idea appeared. "That's it!" Anne snapped her fingers. "I just hope there's enough rope..."

(WTB-LINE-BREAK-WTB)

It took many minutes of hard work, but at last she finished it.

First, Anne tied part of the rope around her waist, tight enough so that it wouldn't slip off easily. Leaving about three feet of rope in-between, she tied part of the rope around Kabbu's waist, before doing the same with Vi and Leif. The rope was just long enough, Anne more than hopeful that this was going to work. This way, they'd all stay connected with the rope, having no chance of one of them sliding off or anything like that.

"Alright everyone!" Anne said, getting all of them into a single-file line along the cliff wall. They were so close; Anne wasn't going to take any more chances or risks. "Just hold onto the rope with one hand and lean on the wall with your other hand; we're almost there!" Anne pointed toward the cave entrance, hoping the others followed her directions. It was in sight...

A few minutes passed, the group slowly but surely making their way to the cave entrance. Step by step, it filled up more of Anne's vision, but she occasionally looked behind her, making sure that everyone was alright. Before long, the cave entrance was only yards away. So close, so close, so close-

Two Underlings walked out from the cave, immediately noticing the four of them. Anne froze in fear; there was no way she'd be able to fight them on her own, especially since she tied herself to the others. If it wasn't for her faking sick, they wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place; none of this ever would've happened! The Underlings grew angry, about ready to attack.

Wait- faking sick. Anne took a deep breath; this might've been her dumbest idea yet, but she had no other options.

The moment the Underlings began to charge at them, Anne hunched forward, shutting her eyes and loudly fake-coughed several times. The Underlings stopped in their tracks, slightly freaked out. Anne kept coughing, almost convincing herself that she was actually sick, getting germs and other nasty particles onto the Underlings.

Over a minute passed, Anne's throat becoming hoarse. One of the Underlings began to slowly back away before turning around and running off, the other one following moments later. Anne opened her eyes as the Underlings ran away, never to be seen again. She stood up straight, not coughing anymore.

Beat.

"I can't believe that worked." Anne said to herself.

With that out of the way, she guided the four of them into the cave, relief washing over Anne as she finally stepped foot onto the dirt cave floor. Please, let the endangered root be in here...

It was a bit too dark to see much properly, so Anne took her phone out of her pocket, shining the flashlight over the small cave, scanning over it as her heart pounded more and more-

Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head; it took all she had not to scream. There it was, nearly identical to the illustration in Kabbu's book.

There were three brown roots growing out of the ground, standing out among everything else in the small cave. Anne nearly dropped her phone in shock, only able to stare at the roots for a minute or so before she snapped out of it. She tugged at the rope behind her. "Guys, come on, this is it!"

She couldn't wait for them. Anne ran forward, the rope yanking the others forward as Anne reached down, tugging at the roots before managing to pull them out of the ground, Anne stumbling back at bit. No time to lose.

Anne spun around, pocketing her phone while she held out the three roots in her hand. Enough for all of them; perfect. "Here, eat this!" Anne handed a root to Kabbu. "It'll help cure you!" She handed another one to Vi. "Trust me!" And finally, she handed the last one to Leif.

"Yippee! A snack!" Kabbu said, sounding more excited than he'd ever been in his life. His gray mandibles opened slightly so he could munch on his root, Anne only then noticing the bits of dirt that clung to the roots.

"FINALLY!" Vi said, practically scarfing her root down in one or two bites before coughing a few times. "It tastes weird but whatever!" The book did mention that it had a... strange taste. But that was the case with most medicines.

Leif slowly chewed his root, not wanting to eat it too fast and potentially throw up again.

It was as if a ticking time-bomb was about to go off in Anne's chest. By now, the three of them had finished eating their roots, Anne trying to wait as patiently as she could. Her fingers were crossed; she was sweating from anticipation; the teen practically shook where she stood, wondering if this was all just for nothing after all. The seconds passed, nothing changing.

...Maybe it was all a waste of time. She got her friends sick because of her selfishness, and now there was no way they'd get better before they went on their next big mission, which meant that they wouldn't be able to go at all and it was all her fault.

At least, that's what Anne thought for a few, long, torturous seconds. Kabbu's stance straightened up a bit, the beetle blinking his eye a few times before shaking his head, groaning.

"Ooogh..." Kabbu said. "Huh?" The beetle appeared confused, scanning the location as if it was unfamiliar to him. "Anne?" His eye fell upon her, Kabbu even more confused as he saw Anne's beaming expression, the teen what was happening. "I feel like I just got out of a really hot swimming pool... How'd we get here? And who tied this rope around all of us?" Kabbu grabbed the rope, studying it.

Kabbu no longer appeared dazed and confused, which meant that his temperature went back to normal, which also meant... Anne turned to Vi; the bee's eyes no longer swelling.

"Oi, I can finally see again!" Vi rubbed her eyes, blinking a few times. "...Uh, what is this place?" Vi asked, confused. "Wait, I don't think I have to cough anymore! But also WHERE ARE WE?" Great, Vi was better for a total of fifteen seconds before she started to freak out about something.

Leif's body turned back to its regular shade of blue. "Well. We don't feel like puking our guts out, so that's a plus." Leif said. "Also..." He extended his arm out, concentrating on his ice magic for a few moments before disabling it. "Glad to have control of our magic back. It was... troublesome, the way we kept freezing everything."

It worked. It worked. It worked... "IT WORKED!" Anne yelled, surprising the others. Anne thrusted her arms into the air, feeling like she could explode from sheer excitement right then and there.

"Wh-What? What worked?" Kabbu asked, a bit taken aback. Vi and Leif had confused expressions on their faces as well; did they not remember much from when they were sick? ...Huh. Well regardless, Anne would fill in the blanks for them.

"Well, you guys got sick after some whole volunteer thing," Anne began, talking fast. "So I had to find a cure with Kabbu's book because if you didn't get better then some other team was going to replace us on the expedition and believe me, I wasn't going to let that happen so I brought you guys here and there was a whole thing with a wheelbarrow and some Underlings but I took care of it, and-"

"And you thought it was a good idea to do all that by yourself?!" Kabbu interrupted, stopping Anne in her tracks.

"Uh-huh!" Anne replied, until realizing that Kabbu's tone was a mix of accusation and concern. "Wait, what's the big deal?"

"You're still sick, you know!" Vi said, pointing a finger at Anne. ...Right. She was supposed to be 'sick'. Anne gulped, having completely forgotten about that crucial detail in all the chaos of confusion of trying to cure their illness.

"As much as we appreciate not wanting to puke anymore, it doesn't change the fact that you decided it was a good idea to go out and do this while you were sick." Leif chastised. "You could've gotten even more sick, or what if something else happened?!"

Anne's face became flushed, embarrassed by how much everyone was scolding her. She wished she could've seen this coming, but she had to think of something to get them off her back. "But nothing happened! It's fine! I gave you all the cure and you're all better! See, I'm fine."

"Well, where's the rest of the cure?" Kabbu asked.

"The... rest of it?" Anne had no clue what he was talking about.

"Whatever it was you gave us, you know what I mean!" Kabbu explained, becoming a bit frustrated. "Take it so you can get better too!"

"Uh..." Anne looked away, glancing at where the roots used to be. She was running out of explanations faster than she could come up with them.

"There isn't any left, is there." Vi said, crossing her arms. Anne silently shook her head. "Well that's just great!" Vi yelled, her sarcasm clear.

Anne almost felt like facepalming. "Okay, so I help get you guys better, and you're mad at me?"

"N-No, we're not mad at you, Anne." Leif said, his tone calmer than the others. "Well, you said that we wouldn't be able to go on the expedition if we were sick... and you're still sick, so..." Oh.

"So we aren't gonna be able to go anyway! This sucks!" Vi yelled, the bee close to tears. Anne's heart dropped like a rock.

"Anne, even if you should've stayed at the house since you were sick..." Kabbu began, frowning. "I am eternally grateful for your efforts. Unfortunately, it looks like Team Snakemouth is going to have to sit this one out after all." At hearing this, Anne stammered, close to tears by now.

They all thought she was still sick. All of this spiraled out of control because she lied, just so she could watch some TV show. What was she thinking?! The truth lay bare before her, the immense guilt threatening to swallow her up whole. Anne couldn't let this continue for another second; this had to stop before things could get so much worse than they already are.

"But... But I'M NOT SICK!" Anne finally admitted, her cry echoing across the cave walls. A few tears escaped her eyes, Anne grabbing her arms afterward in shame.

"Huh?! Anne? But..." Kabbu didn't know what to say. Vi was speechless, Leif having a hard time finding the right words as well.

Anne needed to explain everything before any more false assumptions could be made. "I was never sick. I just faked it so I didn't have to go along with that stupid volunteer thing and get out of work. And I never had food poisoning either! I faked that too so I could have one more day to relax before our next expedition." Anne explained. Vi had her mouth open as if to ask about the food poisoning, but she shut it upon getting her answer. "I let this get way out of control, this was all my fault..."

She hated what she did. She should've confessed that she was faking back when the three initially got sick; if she did that, then they could've avoided this whole confrontation in here, and... Anne felt sick to her stomach; the fact that she let them believe even for a second that they wouldn't be able to go on the expedition was unacceptable.

It was the worst kind of lie; one that could make someone lose a massive opportunity. They trusted her, and she broke that trust the moment she told them she was 'sick.' Sure, her friends from back home might say that sometimes sacrifices need to be made, but this was...different. Back home, she faked sick on multiple school days so she could help Sasha or Marcy with something and remembering that... it made some part of her feel weird and gross all over; Anne was unsure how to express these conflicting emotions.

The floodgates opened. Anne collapsed to her knees, tears flowing from her eyes. "I swear, as long as I live, never to fake being sick again!" She held her hands to her face, practically sobbing by now. She meant it. No matter what, she would never do something like this again, not when it nearly cost her teammates- no, her friends something so huge.

"Anne!" Kabbu said, dropping his serious demeanor and rushing over to pull Anne into a hug. "It's okay! I'm not upset with you at all! Really!" He didn't scold or chastise her at all, his main focus was to make sure she wasn't upset.

"...Hm. If we're being honest..." Leif spoke up. "If you did come out with us during that storm, you just might've gotten sick for real." Leif pointed out. ...That was true.

"Yeah, exactly!" Vi agreed. "Then none of us would've gotten better and we definitely couldn't have gone on the expedition!"

But even if it somehow turned out that Anne faking sick was the 'right' thing to do in this case, it didn't matter. Anne already knew that she would never fake sick again. It already caused her too much grief and pain for a lifetime. And even so... even after revealing how grievously she lied to them, they still supported her without even raising an eyebrow.

Kabbu tightened the hug ever so slightly, patting Anne on the back. "You're brave for what you did, you know. You did all this..." Kabbu gestured around him. "Just to make sure we got better. We're all so proud of you."

Friends that supported her... they were right here with her. Anne's sobbing turned to that of happiness, Anne reaching out to pull Vi and Leif into the hug as well. Anne couldn't stop sobbing, so many emotions mixing together and pouring out of her all at the same time... it was almost cathartic, in a way.

"Is Anne gonna ever stop?" Vi asked, bewildered.

"Just let it happen, Vi." Leif said, the bee sighing afterward.

One thing was for sure. Anne couldn't wait for Kabbu, Vi, and Leif to meet her friends from home... whenever that might happen.