Author's Note: This chapter and the next two all take place at roughly the same time.
It's been nearly a year since Anne Boonchuy arrived in Wartwood. A year since she had become the heart of a community of amphibians. A year since she had seen another human.
Hop Pop hadn't yet gotten responses to all the letters he sent out, but so far the ones he did get were negative. And Hop Pop wasn't the only one who had tried to find Anne's friends. Wally searched and spread the word when he temporarily returned to Ribbitvale, and so had Felicia Sundew on her yearly adventure for tea. The Wartwoodians searched as hard as they could, but in the end no one had found anything about another human, which only made the chances that Anne's friends were still alive even slimmer.
(Then again, it was pretty much unofficial town policy to hide Anne from untrustworthy outsiders, so maybe her friends' protectors were doing the same.)
And of course, no one knew anything about where the music box could be. That could potentially be lost forever.
The Plantar kids had grown quite a lot over the past year. Polly had the most drastic changes: going from a little polliwog to a full-fledged frog. She now had legs, an actual body, arms with fingers, and a head of bushy orange hair. Meanwhile, Anne grew several inches taller and her hair, always adorned with some leaves, got longer. By now she's getting close to completely outgrowing the outfit she came here with, though Sprig has some ideas of how it could be stretched. Speaking of Sprig, he had physically changed the least. His hair grew a little, and maybe got an inch taller, but that was about it. His biggest accomplishment since Anne came to Amphibia was, thanks to encouragement from Anne, getting together with his childhood acquaintance/occasional sparring partner Ivy Sundew. Anne also managed to discourage Hop Pop from going through with the courtship ritual, which was a plus.
Not a day went by where Anne didn't miss her home in Los Angeles, but if she had to spend the rest of her life in Wartwood, then it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Today the Plantars are harvesting crops to sell at the stand, something that became a little easier now that there's an extra person to help.
"Today sure is a peaceful day," said Hop Pop, putting a few turnips in a basket.
"Hop Pop!" yelled Polly. "You can't say stuff like that!"
"What's the problem with pointing out it's peaceful?" asked Hop Pop, not understanding the issue.
"I think she means that something big will happen now that you've said today is peaceful," said Sprig.
"That makes sense," said Anne.
"Exactly!" said Polly. "They get it! Any minute now someone's gonna ring the town bell."
"Well I bet you that bell won't ring for the rest of the day," said Hop Pop confidently. Of course, the bell rang at that exact moment. "Dang it!"
Polly laughed at her grandfather's misfortune, and even Sprig and Anne had to stifle a laugh. The Plantars quickly headed toward the center of town to see what the commotion was.
It turns out Wally was the one who rang the bell. Normally, the townsfolk usually didn't pay much mind to his ramblings but the fact that he actually rang the bell instead of just running around town like a madman meant this was probably something serious. He rang the bell for about a minute before most of the town came out to see what was going on.
"The toads are comiiiiiiiiiiing!" he suddenly exclaimed. "They'll be here any minute!"
The Wartwoodians looked beyond the town gate and indeed, they saw three toads on a wooden cart driven by a giant spider. heading toward them. Many of them began panicking. Why were the toads coming here? Is someone in trouble? Are they going to steal Anne?
"Hey, hey, simmer down everyone," announced Mayor Toadstool. "Nothing bad is gonna happen. It's just that Captain Grime insisted the taxes be collected in person this season. Don't know why though."
Some of the Wartwoodians were still feeling a bit uneasy, but overall that seemed to calm them down. Most of them just went back to what they were doing. Not the Plantars though. They ran back to their home as quickly as possible. Well, Anne didn't really want to run but she couldn't break free from Sprig's grip on her hand. Eventually they made it back to the farm.
"You kids stay inside for the time being," said Hop Pop. "I'll finish up today's harvest by myself."
The Plantar kids went inside and locked the door. Pretty quickly Sprig and Polly noticed Anne wasn't in a good mood.
"Sorry we have to stay inside, Anne," said Polly.
"I don't like the town policy either, but I'm afraid of what might happen if we break the rules," admitted Sprig.
"I know," said Anne, sulking on the couch. "I just can't help but feel helpless." Sprig and Polly wrapped Anne in a hug as she teared up a little. "What if these toads know something about Sasha and Marcy?"
"Maybe they do," said Sprig. "That could be why they came in person."
"Yeah! I bet we'll get good news today," said Polly.
"You really think so?" asked Anne, her eyes briefly flashing blue.
"We hope so," said Sprig. "We really do."
Mayor Toadstool and Toadie stepped out to meet the toads as they stopped by City Hall. Toadstool held a big sack of coins, which surprisingly contained exactly as much money as it was supposed to. Among the many things Anne had done during her year in Wartwood was unintentionally discover that the mayor was embezzling the town's funds. Of course, this turned the townspeople against him, so the only way for him to be in power was to do things fairly.
The tax-collecting toads got out of their cart and the leader, Bog, addressed Toadstool. "Alright. I don't wanna be here right now, so let's get this done quickly."
"That's fine by me," said the mayor as he handed over the sack. "Though I feel the need to ask why Captain Grime insisted this collection be done here."
Bog huffed. "It's a long story. Just know that the captain's gone soft ever since that blonde kid showed up."
Toadstool and Toadie both raised an eyebrow at this and briefly locked eyes. They both seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"Blonde kid?" asked Toadie.
"Yeah," said one of the other toads, "Grime found this weird kid a year ago and now he acts all parental toward her."
"Hold on, I'll be right back," said Toadstool as he walked toward the building. "I just remembered I've got a message I need to give you folks."
Once he got inside he quickly walked to his desk and wrote a letter as fast as he could. Now, Toadstool didn't like Anne, but even he knew it would be wrong for such a sweet child to get in the hands of Bog. If Grime truly was getting soft, then contacting him directly might be the best option.
As soon as the letter was signed and stamped and sealed, he rejoined the others and handed it to Bog.
"A note for the captain," said Toadstool.
"Whatever," said Bog, putting the envelope in the sack of money. "Let's go."
The other two toads looked concerned. "But aren't we supposed to look for—"
"Forget it," said Bog. "There's nothing interesting here." He was about to start the cart before he noticed the sack he had come with. "Oh yeah, we were supposed to dump this trash along the way. We figured you'd take care of it instead." He chuckled as he dropped the bag of trash on the ground and started the cart. "So long, Wartwood."
Most of the frogs eyed the toads unhappily as they rode away.
"That was rude," said Mrs. Croaker. The crowd surrounding her nodded in agreement.
Wally soon started rummaging through the bag. "There might be useful stuff in here."
"Well?" asked one frog.
"It's mostly broken weapons, that's not bad." He then noticed one thing that stood out as different from the rest: a book titled Learning Spelling. He opened it and was shocked to see the name written on the inside cover: Sasha Waybright. "Everyone! Come look at this! I think this book belonged to Anne's friend!"
The crowd gasped and walked over to Wally and saw the name in the book. Sasha Waybright must be at Toad Tower!
"What are you doing just standing there?" asked Mrs. Croaker. "Go bring that book to Anne!"
"Right!" Wally ran off toward the farm, eager to share the good news.
Toadstool and Toadie stayed by City Hall. "It seems our suspicions are correct, sir," said Toadie.
"Yes they were," replied the Mayor. "Hopefully that letter solves things…"