“ A good one.”Īnd the locket that he passes off to her with a wink and a grin is also pretty good, especially when she presents it to Ivy and sees her eyes light up in sheer delight, before she is wrapped in a hug and has a kiss planted on her cheek. An enormous jet engine seems to appear from nowhere on the back, and he rockets up a hill into the sky to crash into a snow mound that must be half a mile away. He seems to sniffle a bit, before a manic grin appears on his face and he pulls a few levers on the sleigh. Watching from atop his sleigh is Loggle, taking in the sight that he has brought about. “ I haven’t heard this much laughing and shouting since before we went underground.” It is a day of fun and sledding and getting pelted with snowballs by her little sisters, but it is also a day of noise and chatter. ![]() The residents of New Wartwood have a snow day, going up to the surface en masse for the first time Maddie can remember since they got back, comfortable in Frog Valley’s isolation during the winter. He makes more sleds, expands outwards into skis and snowboards, even locks himself in for a full two days to make a massive sleigh that needs to be pulled by four snails to even move. ![]() Maddie can see it in his eyes, no matter how faint. Yet when they sit him down to watch the triplets use the sled themselves, to see the sheer, unadulterated joy in their eyes as they ricochet around the surface for the first time in ages, well… there’s a change there. He just slowly trudges away and leans against a tree with such a gloomy look in his eye that even the triplets feel bad lobbing more snowballs his way. When they purposefully place him in the middle of a spontaneous snowball fight between the kids, he doesn’t react either. He doesn’t seem to derive any joy from sledding down a snow-covered hill himself, even when Ivy purposefully careens off into the forest for the Super Fun Ivy and Maddie Extreme Sledding Course that she had prepared. He only half-heartedly resists, but still seems to view the whole thing as just a waste of time. When she comes to pick up the sled, she brings along Ivy and the triplets to kidnap Loggle and bring him up to the surface to go sledding. “Thanks, Loggle,” replies Maddie, and she exits in a contemplative mood. “There’s no wayyyyyyyy… that I can’t make that for you. Keeping them occupied is of vital importance for my work as a baker or potion-maker.” But I need a wooden sled for Rosemary, Lavender, and Ginger. Instead, she thinks quickly, and declares, “Fine. About right for an old axolotl like me, anyways.” And I don’t have the inspiration for them anymore anyway. Frankly, there’s no time these days to make pretty carvings when the shelter needs so much just to stay afloat. With a sigh, the older axolotl responds, “I absolutely dooooooooo… not. “Where are your old carvings, where’s the art? You’re wasting away in here - you see that, right, Loggle?” she asks bluntly. No baubles, no art, only the eminently practical. The shop, which used to be so filled with wooden baubles and odd carvings - carvings that ranged from beautiful to hideous, yet which all had that passion in them - is bare and economical. What he has not been doing, Maddie notices, is carving anything for his own sake. ![]() Not that he’s been inactive - he’s created bowls and spoons and ladders and spears and all sorts of practical, efficient tools that frogs need in their everyday post-apocalyptic lives. She finds Loggle slumped over his desk, in the default position he’s been in for months. Loggle has long since lost his hulking physique when Maddie goes to visit him for a carving - she wants to get a toy for the triplets, and maybe some sort of… keepsake for Ivy? Something romantic, though she’s not sure exactly what that means when it comes to woodworking. Some otherwise despondent frogs are brought back to life by necessity - it’ll be all hands on deck to get through the winter. Winter is encroaching on Frog Valley once again, its icy tendrils beginning to lock the valley under walls of ice. The frogs of New Wartwood adapt, as the year rolls by. Stats: Published: Updated: Words: 28146 Chapters: 9/11 Comments: 21 Kudos: 37 Bookmarks: 6 Hits: 801 Toadie the Mayor's Assistant (Amphibia).
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