This Isn't Home (Amphibia x The Owl House)

Summary: Anne, Marcy, and Sasha arrive somewhere strange.

Anne waited a second for her stomach to settle, going through portals always seemed to flip her organs around. She blinked open her eyes, rubbing away some spots that crowded her vision. At once she noticed something was wrong.

She was on a large hill, overlooking a forest with trees that had orange leaves and pale bark. The sky was a dark indigo colour, dotted with beautiful stars that seemed larger than normal. Everything had an odd glow to it, shimmering in the nighttime.

"Where are we?!" Marcy gasped from beside Anne, taking a few steps through the odd blue grass to examine a flower the size of her palm.

"Not home, that's where." Sasha mumbled, and for the first time Anne realized... She looked exhausted. Small but visible bags under her eyes, her hair was messy, she was leaning on one foot more than the other, and she looked in pain.

"Hmm..." Marcy straightened up, stretched, and glanced around, turning to view wherever they were.

"There's a forest, we should probably head over there. First rule of survival! Find food, water, and shelter." She began to march down the hill in the direction of said forest, almost tripping multiple times.

Anne offered to help Sasha keep her balance on the way down, but Sasha insisted she was strong enough to hold herself up.

"Well, these certainly are bigger than from on the hill." Anne pointed out, gazing up at the ten-foot-or-taller trees.

"And so weird!" Marcy squealed. She grabbed Anne's backpack and started to dig through it.

"Hey!" Anne protested, but soon Marcy had found her journal and hastily opened it, flipping through it.

"They're so different! This definitely isn't Earth. I wonder if..." Marcy trailed off as she began to doodle and write in her journal with a pencil she yoinked.

The trio continued to walk through the forest slowly. Marcy almost fell into a river of water so clear it almost looked like it wasn't there.

"We really need to find a camp in this place. Or, we could make one! Sasha can organize patrols and stuff, we can go to the river for water, but not just yet, b- AAAH!" Marcy wasn't paying attention and started to plummet off the edge of a cliff.

"MARCY!" Anne leaped to grab her friend's hand, but she found a moment later she didn't really need to. Marcy landed rough but safely in a large bush at the side of a wide clearing. There were gigantic trees surrounding the area, with vines and thorns weaved to form natural walls from the outside. Some of the thorns were bigger than Anne's head!

"Woaah! Guys, this place is perfect!" Marcy got out of the bush with some difficulty, leaving a person-shaped dent in it. "We just need to reinforce the walls, create some sort of entrance and path to the river, and find a food source! Not too hard."

"Not too hard?! It's, like, midnight here!" Sasha complained, jumping from the cliff and falling face-first onto the fluffy bush. Anne followed close behind her, watching just in case.

"Yeah, we must've been in that portal for a while. Or there's a time difference here. Fifty-fifty." Anne nodded, gathering some nearby fallen branches.

"Well, let's make a bed!" Marcy exclaimed, and she started to help make a pile of leaves around the bush.

"A- a bed? A singular bed?" Sasha stuttered, and Anne caught a slight blush on her face before the blonde looked away.

"Yeah! I mean, we've slept in the same bed for sleepovers before." Marcy smiled and patted down the leaves in more of a bed-ish shape. "Unless you're uncomfortable with that! You can... Sleep... On the floor...?"

Sasha hesitated but shook her head. "No, it's probably a good idea to stay warm." She sighed and her tense shoulders relaxed. "I call center!" She flopped down onto the makeshift bed and grinned.

"I get center tomorrow!" Anne hit her playfully and lay down beside her. Marcy followed suit on Sasha's other side and yawned loudly.

Anne snuggled closer to Sasha, trying to feel warmer. As she began to drift off, the realization hit her like a truck.

I'm somewhere different, somewhere completely new. I might not see my parents... Ever... Again.

Her tired mind slowed as she cleared her thoughts and focused on the sound of Sasha and Marcy's breathing.

She was safe.

For now.

"She's been gone for a few hours." Mrs. Boonchuy fretted, fixing her hair.

"Maybe time is different in the frog world," Mr. Boonchuy comforted her with a hand on her back.

"But it's nearly dawn by now. Shouldn't we be worried?"

Mr. X watched the two talk, sipping coffee from a cup. The Boonchuys had offered him a night at their place instead of him having to drive all the way home, and he had gladly accepted. Just one night couldn't hurt, his post could wait.

"Let's make a deal," Mr. B continued, "If they are not home by next week, we can worry." His voice was sweet and suggesting, and he pulled his wife closer to comfort her.

"...okay. But I won't like it."

Mr. X grinned. He took another sip of his coffee and pulled out his phone, sending Terri a quick text.

X: you might want to get portal stuff prepared 😘