Buff Frog continues to improvise his story as he reads to an audience of many tiny tadpoles as well as Ludo. Upon wrapping things up, all the tadpoles cheer in unison around Ludo for attending Buff Frog's storytime. Buff Frog then wrangles his kids together and settles them down for a nap. Ludo bids adieu, waving to Buff Frog, which Buff Frog reciprocates, and Ludo silently closes the front door behind him as he exits.
Ludo walks out into the bright sunshine of a new day. The morning dew sits on the grass as the sun beats down on his face. The embracing warmth feels so good to him. After saying his goodbyes, Ludo departs for home again, making sure to avoid the route that led him into a hot mess with the Septarians from before. He takes a little detour through the swamp, that he doesn't mind taking as it's a much safer route. Ludo feels lighter than air after that horrible-tasting remedy offered to him by Buff Frog. He still could taste its bitterness in his mouth, but boy did it do the trick. He dances merrily towards home, singing and whistling to himself like some sort of vintage cartoon character.
The enjoyment isn't long-lasting though as Ludo hears cries for help from the depths of the swamp. He recognizes the voice, a female voice, but doesn't know exactly where it's coming from. He rushes in towards the general direction of it. There she is, the same Septarian that ran from him the day before in the cave. She's sinking in the mud, and can't get out. Ludo thinks for a second about leaving her there, but it soon es when he realizes that karma can easily come back to haunt him. Quickly, he looks for a means of getting her out. Over towards the edge of the water, he spots a long twisted vine and throws it into the mud towards her. Sinking fast, she grabs for it and he pulls her in. She climbs onto the shore, tired. She lays back, catching her breath.
Ludo: "So we meet again. Mind telling me your name this time?"
The Septarian tries to catch her breath.
Septarian: "Jade... it's Jade."
She looks up at Ludo with bright green eyes.
Ludo: "Okay, Jade, I'm Ludo. This is the second time I've saved your butt now. Mind telling me what you're doing around here since I keep bumping into you?"
She gets up and starts walking.
Ludo: "Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Jade: "Leave me alone."
Ludo: "Oh, come on. Is this any way to treat a guy that's saved your life twice?"
Jade looks down at him.
Jade: "If you really must know, I'm on a mission."
Ludo: "Ooh, what kinda mission? Are you like a spy or something?"
Jade: "I wouldn't be a very good spy if I told you I was a spy, now would I?"
Ludo goes to say something but retracts.
Ludo: "Point taken."
Ludo continues to bombard her with questions as she grows mildly annoyed by his curiosity. Still, he leads her a mile down the road to a river, realizing she must be hungry after all that traveling.
Ludo: "Watch this."
Ludo undoes the bands of his beard, letting his beard roll down and sticking it unto the water.
Jade: "What are you doing?"
Ludo: "You'll see."
Ludo places his long, knotted beard into the water. After a few moments, he receives a tug.
Ludo: "Ooh, got one. No, two."
He pulls his head out of the water, showing two medium-sized fish munching on his beard.
Ludo: "Okay, now we just need a fire."
Ludo grabs some sticks and branches and throws them onto the ground.
Ludo: "Now watch this. This is another trick I learned."
He rubs two sticks together, and after about a minute of friction, Ludo gets tired. Jade stares amusedly at Ludo's futile attempt at showing off machismo and natural prowess.
Ludo: "Well, I'll get it eventually."
He's out of breath. Jade rolls her eyes, and pulls out a match, stroking it along her leather and throwing it onto the sticks. Ludo looks over in exasperation, folding his arms.
Jade: "What? I have tricks too. I also have a blade."
She pulls out a dagger, the same one she had before, and starts cutting the fish. They impale the fish on sticks and cook them over the fire. They sit there in silence for a bit. She looks at Ludo, who is looking at his fish as it cooks, the fire glistens off his yellow orbs.
Ludo: "So, you never actually told me what kind of mission you're on."
Jade: "I really shouldn't tell anyone my mission, especially someone like you, whose family is all buddy-buddy with the Butterfly family."
Ludo: "I wouldn't go as far as to consider myself a friend of the Butterflies. I've been quite a trouble-maker towards them, actually."
Jade: "Really? What kind of trouble-maker?"
Ludo: "Well, I used to follow Star Butterfly around and utilize my army of misfit henchmen to overwhelm her and seize her magic wand for myself."
Jade: "Sounds kinda dangerous, messing with a girl with a wand. She probably doesn't even know how to use it properly."
Ludo: "I've gotten many boo-boos that would say otherwise."
Jade: "Boo-boos?"
Ludo: "Yeah. You know, injuries."
Jade: "I've never heard someone call them 'boo-boos' before. How old are you?"
Ludo: "23, why?"
Jade: "Oh, because I was starting to think you were some little kid."
Ludo: "Little kid? What little kid has a full-grown beard?"
Jade: "I don't know, kappa kids, bird kids? I'm Septarian, and even I'm not all that familiar with monster anatomies."
Ludo: "Well?"
Jade: "Well, what?"
Ludo: "You still haven't told me your mission. I've told you a little bit about myself, so the least you could do is let me in on what your mission is. I understand if you can't talk about certain things for fear of compromising—"
Jade: "My mission is to destroy Queen Moon."
Ludo: "What? Why?"
Jade: "She took something from me, something I'll never forgive her for."
Ludo: "That's awful. What did she take?"
Jade: "My father."
Ludo: "That stinks. I never heard of Queen Moon taking the life of someone."
Jade: "Well, she did. She took my dad away from me."
Ludo: "That dad of yours have a name?"
Jade: "He liked to keep to himself. A lot of people simply knew him as 'The Lizard', but to those he knew, they called him Toffee."
Ludo held the stick up to his mouth, and as soon as he heard the name, his heart sunk.
Ludo: "Toffee?"
Jade: "Yeah. Why? Did you know him?"
Ludo: "Nope, never heard of the guy."
Ludo is lying. There's no way he can ever tell her that he knew Toffee, and especially not tell her that he had a part in killing him. He looks at her though, and he can now see the family resemblance. She looks a lot like him, but with green eyes and more brownish hair color as opposed to his jet black hair. Also, her snout is a bit more rounded than her father's. Ludo finds it cute. Curious, he inquires more about her father.
Ludo: "So, uh, what was this Toffee guy like?"
Jade: "He was tall and handsome, and strong. He was very tough on me as a kid and made me rough it sometimes, to 'make me strong' as he put it."
Ludo can relate to that.
Ludo: "Sounds like a bit of a jerk, to be honest."
Jade: "No, you're wrong."
Ludo feels both bad and surprised that she took such offense to that statement.
Jade: "You know nothing about him. He was a great dad. He loved me and was always good to me. He was a good father, and because of his pressure on me, I've grown to become self-reliant and a strong warrior."
The prospect of Toffee being a good father positively floors Ludo. As coldly as Toffee had been to him, he finds it very hard to believe.
Jade: "My dad left me when I was very young. It was about twenty years ago, the last time I saw him. I was just a little girl. He was a general. One day, when I was five years old, my dad leaned over and said to me that he was gonna go off on a mission. He was to take down the rulers of Mewni. I was scared. I knew the queen was a force to reckon with. She has this powerful wand and knows some insane dark magic that could kill Septarians. I begged him not to go. He looked at me and saw the tears in my eyes, and it almost made him break down. He always taught me to be strong and to never let my emotions get the best of me.
"I fell down, got cut, scraped, and even had a broken leg by three years of age. We Septarians are quick healers, but when we're that young, we still haven't the grasp on regeneration. I never shed a tear before that day, but I loved my dad, and the prospect of him going away for so long, on a mission that put his life in the hands of those monster slayers, after hearing the horror stories of Solaria and the Queen of Fire, I just couldn't take it. He looked so sad to leave me. So he took off his ring. This ring, this is the one that he wore on the middle finger of his right hand, he gave it to me."
Jade removes a silver ring with an emerald from the middle finger of her right hand and shows it to Ludo.
Jade: "He told me it was good luck, and that I should keep it close to my heart and always think about him when I look at it. He then gave me a really long hug. I wish it could have been longer. If I could freeze time, I would stay in that moment with him, forever, just to not see him go. He told me he'd be back. I waited. Days turned into weeks... weeks into months... months into years. He never came home. I never saw him again."
She looks over to Ludo, who has been embarrassingly brushing away his tears at the story.
Ludo: "Ah, jeez. I'm sorry."
Ludo rubs his eyes in desperation to hide his weakness.
Ludo: "Hey, um... hypothetically..."
Jade: "What?"
Ludo: "What if your dad was still alive?"
Jade: "There's no way. That means he would have failed his mission, and I know my dad. He's the best. He never failed at anything in his life. He was a perfectionist."
Ludo: "But I mean just hypothetically... what if he did?"
Jade: "Hypothetically, he wouldn't be able to return home. He would be a disgrace to my people."
Ludo: "So you it, there's a possibility that he could be out there?"
Jade: "Are you saying my dad failed and never came home?"
Ludo: "No, no... but, as you said, if he did fail his mission, he wouldn't be able to show his face around your village. right?"
Jade: "My dad is not a failure."
Ludo: "Queen Moon is still alive, right?"
Jade: "Yeah. So?"
Ludo: "That means he didn't complete his mission."
Jade: "It doesn't matter! I'm finishing the job!"
He can tell she is getting angry.
Ludo: "Look... I'm sorry If I'm getting you all worked up. I know your dad means a lot to you, and I thought maybe it would brighten you up if I brought a little hope to you that he could still be out there. I'm just saying, maybe this is a bad idea. I've seen what that wand can do. I've been trying to get a hold of it for years because I wanted to take over all of Mewni with it and rule with an iron fist. But I know that the queens have done some very powerful spells with that wand that could destroy monsters. Jade, I don't want to see you get hurt... or worse."
Jade: "Oh Ludo... you're so sweet, but I have to accomplish my mission."
Ludo: "You don't have to go through with this. I think it's a really bad idea. Please, reconsider."
Jade looks at Ludo and pities his sincerity and innocence.
Jade: "Look... I'll take what you say into consideration, but only because I like you. Still, I gotta get going."
Ludo: "Oh come on. It's getting dark out. You can't travel at night. We could stay here, telling ghost stories or something."
Jade: "Ghost stories, Ludo?"
Ludo: "Yeah! Like this one time, when I was a little boy. I went up in my attic, which was dark and filled with cobwebs, and it smelled funny, and I went up there, and there was this one ghost up there, and it scared the bejeebus outta me! I ran all the way downstairs, only for my dad to go up there and tell me it was a coat rack with a sheet over it. I'll tell ya what, I felt really silly. And of course, blockhead me, I go up there years later and get scared by the same ghost. Oh, brother!"
Jade laughs at his ridiculous story.
Ludo: "What? I was being serious."
She laughs even harder.
Ludo: "Stop laughing, it's not funny!"
Ludo blushes with embarrassment.
Jade: "What? I just think you're cute, that's all."
Ludo looks over at her, his face turning red. He realizes he's managed to make her smile and has broken her previously cold demeanor, and, getting over his embarrassment, he finally notices the impact his anecdote has had on her.
Ludo: "You do?"
Jade: "Yeah. You're a cute, funny little guy, Ludo."
Ludo: "I don't like being small."
Jade: "What's wrong with being small? I'm small."
Ludo notices that Jade is approximately three feet tall, slightly taller than he is, and relatively short for a Septarian. Compared to Toffee, she is positively minuscule, with an athletic build, broad physique, somewhat of a dimply face, and rounded snout compared to her father.
Jade: "The only size that matters is the size of your heart, and you got a big one, Ludo."
Ludo smiles at her. They finish their fish, continuing to chatter, rubbing their bellies with satisfaction.
Jade: "Well Ludo, it's been fun, but I gotta move. Thanks again."
Ludo: "Aw, really? But I was just getting to know you."
Jade: "Yeah. Anyway, I hope you have a safe way home. You do know your way, right?"
Ludo: "Yeah, I'll be fine. I mean look at me. Do I look like a guy that can't handle his own in a tussle?"
Jade laughs at him again. She walks up to him and leans over, kissing him on the cheek.
Jade: "See you around, Ludo."
In an instant, she is gone. Ludo stands there, holding his face where she kissed him, with a big, dumb smile on his face. He then realizes he is alone. He has to get home before it gets too dark. He whistles, and after a mere moment, Eagle and Spider descend toward him.
Ludo: "Take me home, girls!"
Eagle grabs spider with Ludo on board, and hoists them into the air, flying them away towards New Castle Avarius. He talks to his girls mid-flight as they approach the castle, telling them all about how he was sick and how he met Jade.
Ludo: "You know girls, it's been a wild last couple of days. A lot has changed for me so quickly. I'm starting to question myself about things. I think maybe mom was right. I'm gonna do it, girls. I'm gonna set things right."
Eagle drops him off at his window so that he doesn't disturb his family as they sleep. He bids them a good night but lays in his bed with his hands behind his head. His excitement, along with the fact that he'd been asleep for so long, has thrown his whole sleeping schedule off. He has plans, big plans. He just lays there, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the future, and thinking even more about Jade.
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