Welcome to Bugaria: Act 1

It was several hours later.

The group of four did somehow manage to get a small amount of additional rest, which left them with the energy to keep going. With the amount of time they'd been traversing through Snakemouth Den, it was reasonable to believe they were close to some sort of exit by now. ...At least, that's what Anne thought.

They were attempting to move carefully through a narrow hallway; it was the only way forward. Anne led the way, using her phone as additional light. It was extremely convenient that the crystal managed to charge it to the point where she could use it as much as she liked, even if there wasn't much opportunity to goof off on it lately. So many TV shows to watch...

Kabbu was behind her, followed by Vi, and then Leif. The four of them stuck close together, but not so close that they'd bump into each other. The hallway was so narrow that they could only move in a single-file line, which did make things a bit more linear. The four of them walked in silence for a while, trying to conserve their energy. They did manage to find an additional bit of food, but by now, their remaining rations were running slim.

"Oi, just how much longer is this gonna take?" Vi asked, breaking the silence. It was an understandable complaint. "I mean, we've been here for how long now?"

"It's probably been a week, if I had to guess." Kabbu replied, sounding slightly unsure. "Or two." He paused. "Or more." Beat. "...I've lost track, to be honest." Anne could easily check, just by looking at her phone... if only she remembered what day it was when they stepped into Snakemouth Den in the first place.

"Well, this is a pretty big cave." Leif pointed out. "We've been through a large chunk of it already, and who knows how much more there is that we haven't explored."

"Yeah, this is a really big cave." Anne agreed. She didn't speak for a moment, reminiscing a little. "And there's no way I would've been able to last another day in this place if I hadn't met up with you dudes when I did." She vastly preferred this over trying to survive on her own, how she spent her first few days in Bugaria. ...Not pleasant in the slightest.

"Speaking of, we've been meaning to ask you something." Leif said, addressing Anne. She turned her head around as she still walked forward, indicating she was listening.

"How... did you get here in the first place? We don't recall you ever telling us." Leif asked.

Hearing those words, Anne grimaced, turning back around. She didn't reply instantly, instead recalling exactly how she got here in the first place.

Anne reached her hand up, grabbing the music box - Anne raised an eyebrow as she glanced out the large window where her two friends were standing outside, watching - Sasha smiled as she gave Anne two supportive thumbs ups - Marcy stood next to Sasha, a smug look on her face - Quickly, Anne stuffed the music box in her backpack and walked out of the store - Anne  opened the music box-

"Uhh, uhhh..." Anne sweatdropped, trying to come up with some sort of convincing lie. She knew all too well how she got here. Anytime she thought about or was reminded of the music box, it came with the reminder that she stole it. Right under that old lady's nose...

She almost instinctively hunched over, just as she did when she initially smuggled the music box out of the store. It was an awful, sickening feeling, but... it was the only thing she could've done, right? To be fair, she spent all her lunch money earlier that day, so it wasn't like she could've paid for it. And if the music box was just sitting out in the open like that, it must've meant that nobody else cared about it, right?

But even so, at all costs, Anne could not tell Kabbu, Vi, or Leif the real reason she was here. She just... couldn't. Sure, they were all... friends, but even so, she didn't really know them for that long. There were still too many unknowns for her to even consider showing it to anyone else. Anne recalled several times she almost did, but always backed out at the last second without fail.

She tried to come up with a lie on the spot, needing desperately to avoid the subject of the music box and potentially ruin the built-up trust her current friends had in her, even if it was a bit shaky. "I just uh... magically appeared here! One second to the next, just like that." To make it seem more believable, she snapped her fingers, turning her head to face the others.

...To which she was met with stares, Kabbu turning his head in confusion, followed by Vi giving her a slightly skeptical look. Leif stayed neutral, not giving off a reaction. "Huh. Weird." Leif commented, Anne unsure if he actually meant that.

"Yeah that is really weird you know what else is weird why the heck is this hallway so long!" Anne said all in one breath, trying to hurry past the current topic. She looked away from the others, hoping the end of the hallway was near. Please please please don't talk about it anymore...

"Anne, please don't get so worked up, you shouldn't worry!" Kabbu said, trying to reassure her. "There has to be some way for you to return home, I just know it!" She knew the way alright, the only problem was that the music box was busted... great, now she was thinking about it again.

"If you just appeared here randomly one day, then wouldn't you disappear randomly?" Vi brought up an idea, even if it sounded incredibly stupid to Anne. "Then you'd be back home!"

"But what if she re-appeared here again?" Kabbu asked, pointing out a flaw in Vi's logic. Unsure of how to answer, Vi crossed her arms.

"It would be wildly inconvenient to keep popping between two worlds at random." Leif added. Yeah, it really would be.

After a certain point, Anne stopped listening to the ensuing debate, making sure that she was gripping her backpack tightly. Even if she never told anyone else about the music box, she could not lose it no matter what. It was her only lifeline in this place right now. If she lost it, she may as well lose her only way home.

Even just the thought of that was horrifying. Especially with the high likelihood that Sasha and Marcy were here somewhere as well; the thought of facing them and telling them that she ruined their only way back home, especially when it was her fault they got here in the first place... it was unimaginable.

Distracting herself from those thoughts, Anne swore she just heard some sort of noise. It didn't originate from the conversation the others had, it was... somewhere else... hm, must've been just a cave noise.

The conversation eventually died down, the four resuming their silence. It was only a few more minutes before they saw an exit to the narrow hallway, quickening their pace slightly. Before long, they made it out, and...

Anne stepped into the wide, open room first, allowing enough room for the others to get out of the hallway. Her mouth opened slightly, disbelieving what she was seeing right before her very eyes. "Whoa..." Without even realizing it, Anne resumed walking forward, thankful that the path before her was a straight shot.

"Anne, hold on!" Kabbu called, running after her. Anne stopped, snapping back to reality. She didn't know what came over her for a moment there, but... this room was definitely much different compared to everything that came before it.

It was by no means the largest room in Snakemouth Den, but it was packed with a lot. The ground they stood on led up to the end of the room, where it expanded out onto much wider, oval-shaped ground. On either side of the ground was a large body of water, more of those broken structures partially sticking out of it. Gigantic blue crystals jutted out of the walls, Anne almost drawn in by their intense glow. A few webs adorned the place, which made sense, considering how old this place likely was.

"Geez, why'd you just walk off like that, Anne?" Vi asked, sounding a little annoyed, which only confused Anne.

"Huh?" Anne asked, raising an eyebrow.

"As soon as we all got in here, you just started walking forward." Leif answered. "Like some sort of trace." ...What? It sure didn't feel like it, they must've just misinterpreted it.

Truth be told, she still was stressed beyond belief about the music box. Maybe it was the sight of something as different as this, compared to how drab the rest of the cave was, that caused her to react in a way that would seem weird to the others. Yeah, that was probably it. Anne was about to quell their worries, but... she noticed something. "Hey, do you guys see that?" She asked.

It was at the end of the room. There was a statue, bigger than any of the others she'd seen so far. It appeared to depict a roach, just like the other ones had, although... that wasn't really what she focused on. In front of the statue, there was a pedestal, small blue crystals sticking out of the ground around it. The pedestal wasn't empty, either. A large object... was floating above it? Anne couldn't make out exactly what the object was; it was strange, something she'd never seen before. And yet, even from this distance... she felt something.

"By Venus!" Kabbu called out, also seeing the object. "Have we finally..."

"It's the treasure room! We did it!" Vi interrupted, yelling as loud as she could. "We super ultra mega did it! Yeah!" She thrusted her arms into the air, cheering.

With how focused in she was on everything else, it took a moment for Anne to realize. Of course. This was it. After the perilous journey they'd gone on, braving multiple different types of foes, they'd finally done it.

They found the artifact.

A sense of elation bubbled up from within her very being; a smile slowly starting to creep up onto her face. Even if she'd found no way home yet, she finally had something to show for her efforts thus far. And who knows? The artifact could potentially also hold a way for Anne to get home. It wasn't a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination, but the possibility alone was enough for her.

"WOOHOO!" Anne cheered, starting to do a dance to show off her excitement.

"It's way too early to celebrate." Leif said bluntly. Both Vi and Anne froze in place, as if a record scratch just took place. They then resumed their normal standing positions, Vi letting out a "booooo" in protest.

"Leif is right." Kabbu agreed, briefly scanning the area. "This place has been consistently dangerous. We must stay vigilant." At hearing that, Anne thought back to when Kabbu caused some of that danger himself, the multiple occasions he did so.

Despite her earlier excitement, Anne did feel inclined to agree, putting a hand on her chin for a moment. "Yeah, we gotta stay careful. Because in every movie I've seen, as soon as someone takes the treasure, some giant boulder crashes in and the main characters have to run away and-"

"Anne, you watch way too many movies." Vi interrupted, cutting Anne off before she could finish. There was a smirk on the bee's face. "Last one to the treasure is a FAT STINKBUG!" Without hesitation, Vi rushed over to the other side of the room, desperate to get her hands on the treasure.

"Dude, wait up!" Anne called after her, before jogging there herself, not wanting to be a 'fat stinkbug'.

"Fat!?" Kabbu said, pausing due to Vi's usage of the word. Nevertheless, he and Leif soon ran after Vi as well, the moth staying silent. All of them reached the treasure within moments, Leif hanging back just a little bit.

Even if Vi was the first to reach the floating object, Kabbu was the closest to it, trying to inspect it the best he could without touching it. "Could this really be the artifact?" He asked.

"Well, it is a mask." Anne pointed out the obvious. ...What, did no one else immediately conclude that it was the artifact? That was somehow obvious as well to her, but without some sort of proof, it would be hard to convince the others. ...Wait, how did she know it was the artifact?

"It doesn't really seem special. Or valuable." Vi said with a shrug, brushing it off as nothing.

Anne's brow furrowed slightly; she knew it was the artifact ever since she first laid her eyes on it. ...Maybe it was just her gut feeling. Yeah, they'd traveled so far, and their reward for their efforts was the artifact. But first, she'd need to convince them of that fact. "Dude, it's literally floating." Anne said, gesturing to the mask. Vi still didn't seem impressed, though.

Leif stayed silent, walking a bit closer to the mask. What, did he not believe it was the artifact either? The moth stared at the artifact, getting ever so slightly closer, until... without warning, Leif let out a strange sound, getting the others' attention. He backed away from the mask, his eyes shut tight as a pained expression formed on his face.

"Sueska?" Just like several days ago, Leif spoke more of that... gibberish? Ancient language? "Mijrelf Ytrik..." Whatever it was, it got the attention of the others, spinning around to face Leif.

"L-Leif?!" Vi asked, worried.

"Are you alright!?" Kabbu added, his eye wide. Anne had no idea what to think; what could be causing something like that to happen?

After a few more seconds, Leif opened his eyes, blinking a few times. He still looked in pain, but not as much now. "Y-Yes, we are." He nodded a few times, hunched over a bit. "That mask has very potent magic. We reacted strongly to it..." So he was doing that because of the mask's magic? Yet another mystery to add to the already ever-increasing pile...

"That settles it, then." Kabbu declared, looking back at the mask. "This is probably the real artifact." Exactly! Finally, the proof Anne needed for this. Her gut instinct that this was the artifact was right all along!

Although, if Leif reacts to potent magic, why didn't he react to the music box? Sure, it was hidden away in her backpack, but he has been pretty close to it several times... Anne didn't have time to dwell on that, though. Now that they had the artifact, they had to figure out a way out of Snakemouth Den... hopefully it wouldn't too be difficult.

"Dibs on the artifact!" Vi proclaimed. "Leif shouldn't touch it anyways." ...Yeah, maybe it would be safer if Leif kept his hands off of it.

"The Queen has claimed it already, Vi." Kabbu pointed out, to which the bee huffed and crossed her arms.

Aside, Leif whispered something under his breath, just audible enough that Anne could hear him. "The Queen..." Even after all the time she's been here, Anne still knew next to nothing about the elusive Ant Queen... Elizant, right? She was yet another mystery, another enigma that Anne had no clue what to feel about. Maybe she could know something about where Sasha or Marcy are?

"Meh, whatever." Vi said with a shrug, walking over to pick up the artifact.

"Vi, wait!" Anne said, rushing to try and warn her again. "Remember what I said earlier about the danger of just grabbing that thing because-" She ran out of time. Vi carelessly yoinked the artifact right off the pedestal.

Anne gasped, flinching backward, turning her head to the side as she shut her eyes tight, trying to anticipate whatever would happen next, and...

...Several seconds passed, and nothing. There was that same cave noise again, but aside from that... Anne opened one of her eyes, hesitant. The first thing she saw was Vi holding the artifact at her side, giving Anne a quizzical look.

Beat.

Anne did feel a bit silly now, to be honest. She stopped doing her overdramatic pose. "Huh." She paused. "Whaddya know, I guess I do watch too many movi-"

Without warning, the entire room began shaking, Anne letting out a yelp and falling to the ground. The others fell, unable to keep standing up due to the sheer intensity of the shaking. The artifact fell out of Vi's hands, but she barely managed to grab it and store it before it could get too far from her.

When Anne heard a low rumbling next to her, she turned her head, seeing the pedestal that the mask used to be on begin to lower, stopping when it hit the blue crystals below it. A whirlwind of thoughts and emotions rushed through the teenage girl's head, trying to process what was happening.

"I knew I should've watched more movies!" Vi screamed, scrambling to try and stand up. Anne would've boasted about how she was right all along, but she was too busy trying to watch out for if anything else happened.

"There was never any time to watch any!" Leif yelled, barely able to stay up on his hands and knees.

"Leif, Vi, I'm pretty sure there's much more important matters we need to be focusing on!" Kabbu put a stop to their argument before it began.

...And as abruptly as it started, the shaking soon stopped, letting Anne and the others take a moment to breathe. Anne let out a much-needed sigh of relief as she stood up, making sure she was still firmly carrying her backpack. The brief adrenaline rush still coursed through her, making her hyperaware of everything around her.

Which is why when she heard a rush of water coursing into the room, then turning and seeing a ton of water gushing into the room from a hole in the wall, she screamed. Kabbu turned to her, seeing that there were several more holes opening, more water rushing in as a result.

"Curses! This was a trap!" Kabbu yelled over the loud sounds of the rushing water. Anne couldn't stop herself from looking down at the water, steadily rushing into the already large body of water in the room. At the rate it was coming in, it would only be a matter of minutes before it flooded onto the ground they stood on.

"Come on, we have the artifact, let's get out of here already!" Anne yelled to the others. There was no way she would stay in here for another second if she could help it, she had to get to safety.

Trusting that the others would follow her, Anne turned and booked it out of the room, sprinting as fast as she could. The rapid footfalls of the others were right behind her, and if she just- There was a large shadow in the middle of the room. Anne looked up, and her blood turned ice-cold.

"LOOK OUT!" Anne screamed, desperately trying to skid to a stop, thrusting her arms out at her sides. The others couldn't stop in time, Anne letting out some sort of mix between a yell and a grunt as they crashed into her, all four of them falling forward into a heap on the ground, a few yards away from the large shadow, which got bigger and bigger until...

The group of four scrambled to their feet, seeing the source of the large shadow. It landed on all eight of its feet, the force of it hitting the ground letting out a loud BOOM, kicking up a bit of dust into the air. It then let out an all-too-familiar ear-piercing screech, forcing Anne to cover her ears for a moment.

The spider was here.

And it was blocking their only exit.

Within a split second, Anne made the connection of what was making those noises she heard, and what prevented her and the others from sleeping not too long ago. However, due to the circumstances, there was no time to think too long about this.

"YOU!" Kabbu yelled at the top of his lungs. They were all still fully aware of the trouble the spider caused them, even if Leif was only told an account of it. Anne vividly recalled when she thought the spider had won, after it had knocked her back and tied up Kabbu in its webbing. It was something she'd never forget for as long as she'd live.

"Seriously!? The spider?!" Vi yelled, getting her beemerang out to defend herself. Hopefully Vi wouldn't make the same mistake that she did the first time they encountered the spider.

"Does it really have to come back now? This is the worst timing!" Anne yelled, voicing her frustrations. She stole a momentary glance to the water rushing in, hoping she'd be long gone by the time it got near the ground they were on.

"We disagree." Leif said, readying his ice magic. "It's the perfect time for payback!" Without warning, he thrusted his arm out, ice jutting out at the spider from below it. The spider screeched, narrowly getting out of the way before the large ice could do too much damage. However, the spider still blocked their only path out. "If it won't let us escape, we might as well defeat it." Leif added.

...He did have a point, but fighting and trying to defeat a gigantic spider was entirely unknown territory for Anne. A month ago, the most stressful thing she had to worry about was some group project at school, not literally fighting for her life against a huge arachnid. But she had no choice, did she? ...Maybe if there was a small opening...

"B-But last time we had to run!" Vi unintentionally voiced what a part of Anne was thinking. Though, with how narrow the path ahead was, the possibility that all of them would be able to make a clean getaway in one try was becoming that much more unlikely by the second.

"We are stronger now, Vi!" Kabbu argued, trying to boost morale. "And we have Leif with us now. Some battles we simply cannot run from!" ...Right. While Anne wishes she could just run past this and never look back, she had to force herself not to consider it.

She remembered how angry she was at Vi for doing that exact thing, after all. The visceral, raw anger was enough to temporarily cloud her judgement, and she was thankful that she managed to snap out of it. The only way she was leaving this place was if they were all leaving. ...Friends have to stick together, of course. Whether that be taking the fall for them or something else, that was the most important thing she knew.

"Let's hurry it up, before the entire place floods!" Anne warned, only now remembering to get her tennis racquet out of her backpack. A surge of confidence bubbled within her, even if it wasn't much. Whether she wanted to or not, she had to do this.

The spider let out another fierce screech, before charging at the four of them. The battle began.

For a split second, Anne froze at the sheer suddenness of the spider's movements, but she barely managed to dodge to the left, rolling onto the ground in the process. Her heart racing, adrenaline pumping through her body, she managed to stand back up, trying to scan for where the others were at.

She almost wanted to set her backpack down so it wouldn't weigh her down, but she shook her head at the notion. If it wasn't on her, the possibility of it being kicked right into the water, never to be seen again was astronomically high, and so would her chances of never going home again.

From the other side of the room, Vi swung her beemerang at the spider, landing a direct hit on its head. It turned toward her, wasting no time before stomping toward her in a frenzy. Opportunity! Tennis racquet raised, Anne rushed at the spider, hoping to get a hit in.

Unfortunately, the spider heard her approach, turning its head before raising one of its limbs to smack her. There was only a second to react, and she couldn't do it in time, the large limb hitting her in the face. Anne yelped out, stumbling back a bit as she held her face in pain. Nothing was broken... hopefully.

"Anne, look out!" Kabbu called out to her. Anne removed her hand from her face to see the spider charging at her now.

"Oh CRUD!" Nearly tripping over herself, Anne turned around and ran, trying to put a bit of distance between herself and the spider. It'd only been inches away from trying to bite down on her head; that could not have been any closer of a call.

Thankfully, Anne heard the spider screech in some sort of pain, so she turned around, coming to a stop. Leif managed to completely freeze one of the spider's limbs, causing it to stop. The spider looked at the frozen limb, its eyes wide as saucers as it futilely tried to shake the ice off.

Another chance! Anne rushed back at the spider, this time managing to get a direct hit on its face with her tennis racquet. The harsh hit left a mark on the spider's face, and Anne silently cheered to herself. The spider tried to swipe at her with one of its non-frozen limbs, but was distracted when Vi hit it with her beemerang again, this time somewhere else on its body.

As Vi caught her beemerang, Anne stepped back a bit, trying to catch her breath. The fight felt like it only barely just started, and she already grew exhausted. She tried to think about any sort of weakness the spider had... something that could help end the fight faster...

The spider tried to rush forward, only to slip due to its frozen limb. It hissed, before slamming the limb down on the ground over and over, trying to break the ice. Taking the opportunity, Kabbu ran at the spider, his head lowered. When he got close enough, he upstriked the spider with his horn, causing it to screech in pain. ...Anne was pretty sure her ears would be ringing after this.

Kabbu backed up a bit, ready to attack the spider again. However, the spider caught onto what he was going to do. As the green beetle ducked his head and charged at the spider again, it waited... and then moved its frozen limb right at the last second, causing Kabbu to crash into it.

The ice shattered into a million different pieces, Anne shielding herself so that as little ice as possible hit her face and eyes. Kabbu reeled back in pain, not expecting to crash into ice. The spider raised its limb, before slamming it down on Kabbu, forcing him to the floor as he let out a shout of pain.

Anne gasped, a feeling of déjà vu washing over her. Before she could step in to help Kabbu, she saw something from the corner of her eye. Leif had raised his arms above his head, concentrating on something. Several feet above him, a large ice projectile forming in the air. After a few seconds, he thrusted his arms forward in the direction of the spider, and the ice projectile was sent hurtling in that same direction.

The spider only had one second to look at what was coming at it and scream before the ice projectile connected, causing the spider to be surrounded by a huge block of ice. ...Whoa. Anne hadn't seen Leif do anything like that before.

"How'd you do that, Leif?!" Vi yelled, both amazed and freaked out.

"Whatever it was, thank you so much!" Kabbu said, getting up and putting some distance between himself and the spider.

"...We just thought about it, and it happened. We're not too sure ourselves." Leif admitted, looking at his hand.

...Wait, the spider was frozen. AKA not trying to attack them. "Guys, while we have our chance, I really think we should-" Even though she spoke quickly, she couldn't finish her sentence, as she saw a Jellyshroom and Inichas rush into the room, the new obstacles blocking their path. "Okay, seriously?!" Anne yelled in exasperation.

"The spider must've summoned them with its roar!" Kabbu offered an explanation. Okay, that made sense, but... Anne looked nervously at the rising water, it was getting dangerously close to ground level. Also, did the ice the spider is in just shake a little?

The Inichas tucked into a ball, spinning at the nearest target, which happened to be Vi. At the same time, the Jellyshroom spat out some kind of blob of poison at Leif. Vi just barely managed to dodge out of the way, the Inichas flying past her and crashing into Leif, which unintentionally helped him dodge the poison attack. ...Was it just Anne, or were they all super uncoordinated?

Nevermind that now. Leif practically threw the Inichas off of him, and it was already charging up another attack, this one aimed at Anne. The teenage girl managed to sidestep the Inichas, causing it to crash into a rock. She was about to go after it, but saw Vi trying to deal with the Jellyshroom on her own, so Anne ran over to help her.

As she ran past the frozen spider, the ice shook once more; a bit more forcefully this time.

Kabbu ran at the Inichas that was trying to pull itself free. He grabbed it from behind, and pulled, getting it out within a few seconds. The Inichas tried to wriggle out of Kabbu's grasp, but it stood no chance against his strong grip as he turned, before flinging it into the water, the creature never to be seen again.

Vi dodged yet another attack from the Jellyshroom, before trying to swing her beemerang at the annoying thing. However, it missed, the beemerang flying throughout the room. Vi grumbled in frustration, but froze up when the Jellyshroom flew right at her- Just in time, Anne arrived, smacking the Jellyshroom away from Vi.

The Jellyshroom coincidently flew directly into the path of the beemerang, hitting the monster once again. The two consecutive hits proved to be too much for the monster, which was evident by how its eye was now all swirly, its movements slowing down considerably. This allowed Leif to swoop in, freezing the Jellyshroom in a block of ice before tipping it over the edge, falling straight into the water.

But they weren't out of danger yet. With incredibly unfortunate timing, the large ice cube encasing the spider shook once more, before it suddenly shattered, large chunks of ice going everywhere.

Kabbu yelped as he ducked down to the ground to avoid ice flying at him. Leif raised one of his wings as a sort of defense, and it kind of worked? A large chunk of ice hit him, but he didn't appear too phased by it. Vi flew up into the air to try to avoid the ice, only to falter when a chunk hit her in the leg, causing her to cry out in pain as she fell back to the ground. Anne gulped as a chunk of ice just barely whizzed past her forehead. Her knees shaking, she tried her absolute best to remain standing firm.

Although, in the chaos of all the ice chunks going everywhere, Anne didn't notice until it was almost too late. The spider's mouth was closed, its cheeks puckered out. Then, it let out a screech as it spewed some kind of purple gas out of its mouth. Whatever it was, Anne did not want to find out.

With a burst of energy, she leapt to the side, tumbling to the ground in the middle of the room, right next to the pedestal. Anne gasped for breath, sweat pouring down her body. She ached and bruised a lot from all the hits and blows she took; she definitely was going to feel the full brunt of it later.

Getting onto her hands and knees, Anne managed to look over and see how Vi and Leif were faring. Leif had managed to hold up one the large chunks of ice, using it as a shield to prevent the gas from hitting him and Vi. Kabbu was on the other side of the room, so the gas had no chance of touching him.

She knew she should've stood up, but every part of Anne's body told her to stay down, take some sort of rest. Her vision blurred, her adrenaline rush fizzling out. Holy crap, she was so tired. The cries and yells of the others mixed in with each other; it was impossible for her to understand what anyone was saying.

Rapid stomping of many legs, followed by a loud hiss right behind her- she turned around, her eyes bulging out of her head as the spider's mouth was wide open, a moment away from biting her- Anne tried to stand up to run, but it was too late.

The spider chomped down-

On her backpack.

The spider's mouth had an iron-clad grip around the top of her backpack, preventing Anne from moving anywhere. The spider jerked upward, Anne dropping her tennis racquet on the ground in surprise. The cries from the others filled her ears; she was vaguely aware of them running over to her to help.

Anne tried to struggle out of it, but she screamed when the spider rapidly began shaking her back and forth, the whiplash making her feel like she was going to throw up. She had to get free or something, before anything worse happened to her.

With her remaining strength, Anne desperately struggled, trying to free one of her arms. Somehow, she got one of her arms out, and with that, she slipped out entirely, the momentum from the spider shaking causing her to turn as she fell, landing on her back.

She grunted as she hit the floor, and the others were already upon her. They were overloading her with questions she couldn't listen to or understand, because now that she wasn't in immediate danger, one thing of grave importance was on her mind.

"...My backpack." Anne muttered out as the spider backed away to the middle of the room. What did the spider want with her backpack?

"Uh, that didn't really answer my question." Vi deadpanned. Anne hardly paid attention to her, staring at her backpack... her backpack... with the music box inside of it...

"MY BACKPACK!" Anne suddenly screamed. She shot up to her feet in an instant, startling the others. The spider raised its abdomen up in the air, silk shooting out of the back of its abdomen directly toward the ceiling.

No... The spider was going to leave... No... With her backpack... No... Leaving her with no way home... No... Sasha and Marcy would be angry at her for losing it... NononononononononoNO-

Anne tried to rush toward the spider, but Kabbu grabbed her arm held her back. "Anne, it's too dangerous! We can get you another backpack some other time! Your stuff is replaceable!" The spider began raising itself up into the air, presumably back to where it came from.

"No!" Anne wretched her arm out of his grip, but it was replaced by Leif moving himself to block her path.

"Anne!" Leif yelled harshly. None of them had any idea. The spider slowly rose higher, and higher... "We know it's awful to have something stolen from you, but-" Anne couldn't stand there and wait any longer; her mind was moving a million miles per minute.

"MOVE!" She roared, barely aware of her vision briefly filling up with a blue tint for the slightest moment. She shoved Leif out of the way, about to charge at the spider- It was already just a bit too high up.

No. She wouldn't lose the music box just like that, just because the spider caught her in a bad position. Anne scanned the room, trying to find something to help her- the Roach statue! The others yelled for her to stop, but she couldn't. Not now.

With some sort of newfound energy, Anne ran at the statue, using the pedestal as a boost before leaping onto it. In a frenzied rush, Anne clambered up the statue, only taking a moment to steady herself. The spider was at eye-level with her, the backpack still partly in its mouth. Anne had to move. It was now or never.

She leapt off the statue, a courageous shout escaping her lungs.

Time slowed to a crawl. Anne threw her arms forward. The spider's eyes widened a little. Anne's heart nearly pounded right out of her chest. The spider rose upward, almost out of reach... Anne managed to barely grab onto one of the spider's limbs, clutching it with both hands.

Time resumed. The spider screeched- or tried to, the sound muffled due to holding Anne's backpack hostage. Her eyes narrowed, Anne climbed up the spider's limb, even if it tried to shake her off of it. If she fell now, it would be fatal...

Somehow, Anne climbed up the limb mostly unscathed, getting onto the spider's back. "Let go of my backpack, you stupid spider!" She yelled, as if that had any chance of working.

Slowly but surely, both of them were rising to the ceiling. Anne looked up, seeing that there was some sort of hole. That must've been where the spider came from. She had to end this, fast.

"I said let GO!" With no remorse, Anne drove her fist into the top of the spider's head. And again. And again. And a fourth time.

Her hand hurt from the repeated punches, and it wasn't working. She needed to try something else, but what would- Anne gasped. Her phone.

Without delay, she took it out of her pocket. It still had over 9800% left, but that didn't matter. She had to act now.

She turned on the camera app, made sure the flash was on, and pressed the button. The flash shined right at the spider's eyes, just as Anne hoped.

The spider screeched in agony, blinded by the light. Its mouth opened, and Anne's backpack fell to the ground. The spider's webbing snapped, and a split second later, both the spider and Anne began falling to the ground, the two of them screaming.

It was a blur; Anne feeling weightless but at the same time aware of the air rushing past her. The spider crashed into the ground, and she landed on top of it, the spider's abdomen thankfully cushioning her fall before she rolled onto the ground.

...She needed... her backpack... Anne could hear the footsteps of the others running over to her, and Kabbu was already upon her in seconds, moving to help her up. She needed her backpack before the spider got it again...

"Give me my backpack!" Anne called out. She couldn't rest until she got it back, even if it was just a few feet away from her. She reached her hand out to it... Kabbu bent down and picked it up for her.

"You were really determined to get this back, weren't you?" Kabbu asked, already knowing the answer. He held it out to her, and Anne didn't waste a second before grabbing it from him, hugging it against her chest for dear life. She did it. She got the music box back.

"Anne, you could've killed yourself doing that!" Leif scolded. Anne didn't care, she'd take all the heat and more for this later, it was worth the risk to not lose the one thing that she knew would eventually get her home. Leif was about to scold her more, but Kabbu shook his head, and Leif's expression softened a little.

"Oi!" Vi's voice broke the moment. "I'm pretty sure that the spider isn't moving anymore. It's just lying there." ...In the heat of the moment, Anne forgot about the spider entirely. She glanced her head over, and Vi was right. The spider lied there on the floor a few feet away from them, its limbs sprawled out, unmoving.

"Then that means..." Kabbu said, coming to the same conclusion that Anne did. "We... we did it! For real this time!" He paused for a few seconds before... laughing. He couldn't stop laughing, nearly doubling over.

"Why are you laughing?!" Vi questioned. Anne was a little confused by that as well.

Kabbu wiped away a tear of laughter. "It's just that we really did it! There was a bit of a scare..." He not-so-subtly glanced at Anne. "But working together, we were victorious! We did it..."

"Thank you." Leif said. "We don't know much of what happened to us... but beating up that spider was great stress relief." He smiled softly. Oh, definitely. After running for her life from that very spider, it was beyond gratifying to finally give it what for.

"No problem, I was gonna beat it up anyways!" Vi replied, before she got the mask artifact back out, holding it up for everyone to see. "And we got the treasure, too!" For a moment, Anne was drawn in by mask once more, but that feeling faded when Vi put the artifact away.

"I'm glad I was able to get my stuff back as well." Anne said, putting the backpack on properly. They got the artifact, defeated the spider, and Anne still had the music box... Why did she feel like she was forgetting something?

The sound of rushing water filled her ears.

"We forgot about the flood." Anne said, fear gripping her heart for about the thousandth time that day.

Before she could even think to try and run, the ground shook violently, forcing her and everyone else to the floor. From that moment on, it was chaos.

The water rushed in so much faster than before. Screams. Shouts. Wet. Very wet. Slipping. Vision slipping away. Blackness...

…

…

…

For a little while, Anne thought she was in some sort of horrible dream or fantasy that her brain cooked up. So much dizziness, no sight at all... she couldn't see anything. Where was she?

Well, she was laying on the ground. Laying on... grass? She opened her eyes, but she still couldn't see anything. She must be laying down face-first.

Still hardly aware of what was going on, Anne slowly managed to push her head up to see... sunlight. For a brief, fleeting moment, she thought she was back home, but reality came crashing back down onto her that same second. She was still in Bugaria... but where exactly?

Anne glanced around a bit... there was an entrance to some cave, a short waterfall accompanied by a body of water behind her, and a large, hilly stretch of land in front of her. This part of Bugaria was entirely foreign to her... and it's not like she could just pull up a map on her phone.

The other three, Kabbu, Vi, and Leif were on lying on the ground not too far from her, motionless. ...They were okay, right? Yeah, they ought to be... Wait. Where was her backpack? It wasn't on her. No... nonono she couldn't lose it again right after getting it back-

Oh, it was next to her. Just sitting in the grass. Anne put a hand on it, and... yeah, the music box was still in there. Whew. Anne tried to stand up, groaning as she held her hand against her head. A whirlwind of events happened in only the span of a few minutes, and she struggled to remember it.

There was a small grunt a few feet away, and Anne turned her head, seeing Kabbu slowly come to. "Ngh... what..." It took him a moment for him to get up, but upon seeing the state of the others, he immediately snapped upwards. "Anne! Vi! Leif! Are you alright?" He yelled, flailing his arms.

"Can you please not yell so loud?" Anne asked, the loud noise jolting her a little. She finally managed to stand up, putting her backpack on.

A moment later, Vi woke up, stretching as she stood up. "Ugh! I'm all soaked!" There was water dripping off her body. Without warning, she shook herself, water droplets flying everywhere.

"Don't get it on me!" Anne complained, shielding herself. She was a bit wet herself, but the water was so cold...

"Get over it, it's just water." Vi said with a huff, crossing her arms. "Besides, we really got lucky back there. It was a miracle we got out okay after all that."

"I'm a bit hazy..." Kabbu admitted, rubbing his head a bit. "We got the artifact... and then that spider attacked..." That did sound accurate... Anne struggled to remember it all, but when a vision suddenly appeared in her head of herself making a death-defying leap off that roach statue, her blood chilled. ...She really did that, didn't she. Wow.

Upon the mention of the artifact, Vi tried to bring it out again, only... "Eep!" She squealed, drawing attention to herself. "The artifact! I dropped it!"

"You WHAT?!" Anne screamed, putting her hands on top of her head. On one hand, at least it wasn't the music box... but on the other hand, everything they went through in Snakemouth Den may as well have been for naught now. Just great.

There was a groan. Leif was still face-down on the ground, his antennae twitching a little.

"Leif!" Vi turned to the moth. "Did you grab the artifact!?" She asked in a panic.

"Seriously, Vi!?" Kabbu had an incredulous look on his face. "Worry about the artifact later! Let's make sure Leif is okay first!" Right. Anne did feel bad for him, after all.

The three started to walk over to him, only for Leif to suddenly stand up, coughing several times. Anne instinctively stepped back a little, not wanting any bug germs to get on her.

"Next time, we'll just freeze the whole dumb river." Leif groaned, blinking several times. Wow, he really looked out of it. Anne was thankful that she didn't recall anything from after the water flow increased...

Kabbu let out a sigh of relief. "I am... so relieved to see you well."

"So?" Vi asked, as if Leif could have any idea what she was talking about based on that alone. "Did you catch the artifact or..." She trailed off.

"Yeah, I really hope we didn't just go through all that for nothing." Anne said. If they lost the artifact in the flood, who knows where it could be now?

Leif tilted his head to the side a bit, before attempting to look at something past the others. "Uh, the artifact... It's over there." He took out one of his arms from his wings, pointing at something a few yards away.

Partially hidden in a small bush was the artifact.

Vi immediately ran over to it, getting to it within seconds. The others walked over at a more casual pace as Vi picked up the artifact, inspecting it. "Alrighty! Not a scratch!" Well, that was a huge relief. Vi pocketed the artifact once more.

"Your concern is touching, Vi." Leif spoke, a bit of sarcasm in his tone.

"Oh, drop it. You look super fine!" Vi replied. It was easy to tell that their banter was now coming from a place of playfulness, and not anger. It was a nice change.

"Yeah. We sure hope Anne's backpack is fine as well." Leif said, continuing the banter.

And with that, a huge spike of guilt came crashing down on Anne all at once. For so long, she'd been focused on trying to keep the music box a secret while trying to make sure nothing happened to it. Even when she let it slip that she stole a music box, nobody questioned anything. She just kept at it, lies stacking on top of each other, building higher and higher...

With each lie she told, another weight added itself to the already heavy strain all of this put on her. It was as if the physical weight of her backpack increased, which it already did due to the music box that she stole. She'd been trying so hard to make sure that the music box was safe, but with each day that passed, it became increasingly harder to do so on her own.

She didn't completely trust anyone in this world yet. But... Hm. She was almost tempted to laugh off Leif's comment, but... but...

Anne let out a long sigh, knowing she wouldn't be able to take back what she was about to do. "Guys..." Everyone else was focused on her. "Now that we've been through a lot, there's something I need to share with you." She set her backpack down in front of her, zipping it open, before...

Pulling out the music box. It was still covered in the cloth, so she yanked that off before letting the cloth fall into the backpack. "This is how I got here." No going back now.

Her heart heavy, Anne held it out in full few, letting the others take it in as much as they needed to. Leif only stared at it, Kabbu blinked a few times, and Vi looked at it in confusion. The seconds ticked by agonizingly slow.

"That's... very shiny." Vi commented, unsure what to think. Leif reached out his hand to touch it but decided not to. Kabbu didn't say anything.

It became quiet once more, so Anne spilled anything. "This is that stupid music box I told you about, the one I stole. Sasha and Marcy were with me when I opened it and got sent here, so maybe they're somewhere here as well? I dunno, I just... Have you seen anything like this crazy music box?"

Admittedly, Anne did feel a little better when she put it all out in the open. Nobody spoke up, to which Anne was about to apologize for wasting everyone's time, but...

"May I see it?" Kabbu spoke up. He took a few steps forward, gesturing his arms out.

...Could it be? Finally, any sort of information at all? "Sure." Anne shrugged. "I mean, it is busted." She made sure to add that extra bit of information.

Anne carefully handed him the music box, not wanting it to drop and break or anything. Kabbu stared at the music box, thinking to himself as Anne waited, anticipating what he'd say next.

The beetle opened and closed the music box several times, looked inside it, turned it over multiple times, checked over every square inch of it, tapped the three white gemstones a few times... "I'm sorry, Anne. I haven't seen anything like this before. I thought I did, but I was mistaken." Kabbu explained, his tone sorrowful.

Anne frowned. "Well, it was worth a shot." She didn't blame Kabbu or any of the others for not knowing anything about it. She was admittedly disappointed, but someone had to know about the music box, right? Kabbu gave her back the music box, and Anne let out a pbbbth noise as she checked over the music box one more time, just to make sure she didn't miss anything.

"Oh! Oh oh oh wait!" Vi exclaimed, an idea popping into her head as she flailed her arms in excitement. "What if that music box is another artifact or something!" Hm... that definitely wasn't something Anne thought of before. That could be it, due to the mysterious nature of the box itself.

Leif put a hand on his chin. "We haven't felt any magical energy come from that box." Right. Even when the music box was wide in the open, Leif never started speaking that gibberish language. "This is very strange..."

"Well still!" Vi argued. "Maybe you have to like... I dunno, put in some password for it to work!" Definitely not, considering nothing like that came up when Anne initially opened it.

"Regardless, I think the best course of action would be to take the music box to the Queen." Kabbu said. "...If that's alright with you, Anne."

"The Queen..." Leif whispered again, aside. Hm... the Ant Queen was still an enigma that Anne knew nothing about; practically no information about her existed in her head... Although, the music box was an unknown as well. Anne already told her friends here about the music box, so...

"Sure." Anne said with a shrug. "She might have some answers." If there was anyone who could help her out on this, it was likely Elizant. There was something super small nagging at Anne though... what was it...

Kabbu let out a huff of exhaustion, stretching a little. "We're gonna need a good rest after all this..."

"After we figure out where we are." Vi pointed out. ...Where were they?

"If we recall, this isn't too far from the Ant Kingdom." Leif explained. Hopefully his memory wasn't faulty. "It might take a little bit to get back to the city, but not too long."

"Well, as long as we keep moving, we should get there before sundown." Anne reasoned. Anything to get back to civilization as soon as possible, and...

Before putting the music box back in her backpack, Anne took one last look at it, her face reflecting off the three white stones. "Don't worry, Sasha and Marcy. I promise, no matter how long it takes, I'm going to find you."