Chapter Text
All it took were two open eyes.
Swirls of blue overhead, mixed in with the prettiest of pinks, accompanied by the clouds of pure white. The sky displayed quite the lovely sight, something like this being seen only a few times in your life. The way the wind felt around the face as well, bringing a comforting sensation to white, old hairs. The land was warm but not warm enough, not to where it’d bring sweat down a notably large forehead. In fact, everything had a simple feeling of tranquility that one couldn’t remember feeling for many, many years. The five senses did wonders in coordinating where someone could exactly be.
And that was just the thing. Where was… here?
Large, yellow eyes fully widened at the realization that something was very, very wrong. Then, the large figure quickly sat and stood from his place on the ground. The foundation itself? Pure, lush grass. Seeing something like that, while mesmerized by it, was something known to not be true. Plantlife was no longer that beautiful, no longer holding the life it should have. He knew, because everyone knew, because all life had been drained by machines and lost materials. He knew, because he was the cause behind the loss.
King Andrias knew, because on the next day he would not only strip his world of sentience, but also that of the fabled Earth.
So why?
The king hadn’t even given himself a proper look yet, and once he had he no longer bore his usual kingly attire. Rather, the newt was wearing clothes he’d never seen before. A white suit with grey buttons, alongside a nice, formal robe of similar colors to go along with it. His crown was even absent for the time being, a silent relief to come upon the realization. While the getup was nice, it didn’t eliminate the problem at hand. Really, the questions only grew in number by the time Andiras got a better look at his surroundings. The land was surrounded by beautiful colors of wildlife, the plants growing as if they’ve never been poisoned, and there were even polished relics of his people’s history that had to have dated back centuries. Things seem to be as they once were, all calm before the storm finally rolled in and ruined everything. Amphibia looked almost like it was brand new!
That’s what the king liked to believe, until he heard childish giggling coming from the side of the hill he supposedly awoke from. “Hey, come back here!” The child frog yelled out to another party, more than likely another child, and all seemed pleasant until… “Haha! Just try and catch me first!” Andrias’s eyes spotted the other child, and saw that the voice belonged to no amphibian. Why, the young frog was playfully chasing a… “Human?!” The king spat out in sheer surprise, going to the lengths of rubbing both of his eyes to try and see if this was all a mind’s trick. Lo and behold, the human remained human, and both children looked at him in confusion. Before Andrias could even begin to explain his outburst, the second child only snickered before running away again. The frog gasped and ran after the fleeing friend. “No fair! Wait up!” And just as soon as they came, the two were gone, again leaving the king all alone.
Andrias himself had to stand there for a good few minutes trying to process what just happened. A human child in Amphibia… and it certainly wasn’t any of the three he’d been so very accustomed to. The frog wasn’t recognizable either, which only added more to his puzzlement. He was in some sort of twisted Amphibia, was he not? So why was a human here? Why wasn’t there sheer panic over the sight of the thing?! He started to remember that he hated not knowing things, especially when they directly involved him. He still doesn’t even know why the world looks so peaceful, only yesterday was the land being used to fuel his needs for otherworldly concurring, so what could’ve caused this?
Well, perhaps standing out in the middle of nowhere wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do. Seeing as there were no other options, Andrias decided to make his way through the living hills and see where he’d end up. More specifically, he was more so trying to find someone to explain what was going on. No matter how far he could’ve, hypothetically, gone off the deep end, absolutely nothing could explain something like this. Did someone strand him here? Worse, was it possible that his ancestors could’ve banished him here? No, they… they wouldn’t do that, not with how well things were progressing, anyways.
So the newt walked. And walked, and walked. The nice thing about walking was that he was able to pick up a few things about this strange location. First, while there were still Amphibian relics out and about, there were also some structures he couldn’t quite recognize. There were a few tall, standing rocks for instance. That was certainly strange, but he found quite the appeal from them. There were also broken down castle walls, not ones from Newtopia that was for sure, but still shared that same appreciation the rocks did. Despite these new discoveries, Andrias never found himself stopping at them, still holding onto hoping that someone would suddenly appear and give him the answers he desired. Yet, with each step taken, there were no new beings. Just the continued path of grass.
He might have been walking for hours at that point, yet showed no signs of stopping. There wasn’t too much pain to be had when there was nothing there to give it to you, those elderly aches and pains were a thing of the past for old Andrias! Regardless of the lack of bones that could never break, the king was still finding himself at a loss for answers. Would he even find anything out here, or would he continue walking until he completely gave up? His hope was beginning to falter with all the time spent on his journey. Still, he kept going. Who could conquer an entire planet if it weren’t himself being there? The Core, probably, but he wouldn’t miss the opportunity for the world.
It would eventually come down to Andrias’s prayers being answered, as one last venture up a large, steep hill bestowed to him a sight he had been missing. The signs of civilization, a city overhead! “Oh, thank frog!” The king pleaded to only himself as he quickened his pace and began making his final race to the metropolis. While he made his way closer, though, he began to study the foundation more and realize that wait, cities like these don’t exist in Amphibia! Just as he was almost about to make his way inside the new area, Andrias froze in place, getting a good study out of the skyscrapers and eerily similar structures they were to the ones next to them. It was starting to seem that he’d ended up in a place that was almost… human. What does that make of all the Amphibian relics out and about, then? There were far too many questions at this point to simply ignore! King Andrias had to take the initiative and begin a full-on investigation!
Without another thought, he took the initiative and began the search to find the only answer to the ultimate question.
Why?