Chapter 10

"JO!

OH! EM! GEE! You will NOT believe what happened to me yesterday!

I met another human!

Yeah, that's right! Not a frog, toad, bug, WHATEVER! A REAL LIFE HUMAN!

Her name was Luz, and get this! She's stuck in a world far away from home JUST LIKE US! She's stuck in a magical world Jo! SHE'S A WITCH IN TRAINING! THAT'S SO COOL!

*Off to the side is a drawing of Luz with the caption "New Friend!"*

And get this! You know those symbols that I drew in you yesterday? Those are glyphs! SHE TAUGHT ME MAGIC! I can make fire, ice, plants, and light! And I can combine them to do WHO KNOWS WHAT!

Sadly, she or her mentor Eda couldn't help me with a draining spell to help Anne, since they are apparently taboo where they come from. Oh well…

I seriously cannot wait to get to experimenting with these… but something more important comes first.

We heard a rumor last night during dinner that the Toad Tax Collectors are coming into town today, to collect the taxes. This is the perfect opportunity to find out if they've seen Sasha without having to go through Toadstool!

So, Sprig and I have a plan to try and get the info out of them WITHOUT them freaking out and trying to kill me!

Studying glyphs with Maddie can wait, Sasha comes first!

Wish us luck Jo!"

"Ok, here they come." Marcy whispered to Sprig.

Off in the distance, they saw a carriage being pulled by a menacing looking spider, being rode by a trio of tough looking toads.

Upon arriving, they were greeted by Toadstool, who gave them a list.

"Hmmm… that's weird." Marcy said.

"What's weird?" Sprig asked.

"I'll explain later, just go through with the plan!" Marcy said.

"Yes Ma'am!" Sprig said as he hopped into action.

"Heya brave toads!" Sprig said with way too much enthusiasm to be talking with bloodthirsty warriors.

"Eh? What do you want runt?" The leader of the toads asked.

"I hear that you guys from toad tower! Is that right?" Sprig asked.

"Sure are, what's it to ya?"

"Well, I happen to be quite interested in all the creatures that can be found in our humble little valley, and I wanted to see if you've ever seen one like one I saw the other day!" Sprig said, holding up a drawing of a human that Marcy made.

"No." The toad said without even looking at it.

"Huh? But… you didn't even…"

"Don't have to, I didn't see one, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell some runt of a frog like you. Now get lost." The toad said as he grabbed a sword and began to lead his group around.

Sighing in defeat, Sprig went back to Marcy.

"Sorry Marcy, they didn't even give me the time of day." Sprig said.

"That's fine, I should of known that based off the claste system here in Amphibia they wouldn't really care." Marcy said. "Still though, that list they have is… concerning."

"Really? Why?"

"It's just… big! According to the research on how the taxes work around here when I helped Hop Pop take care of his, that should be the list of frogs in town that DIDN'T pay their taxes…" Marcy explained.

"Really? With a list that big, just about everyone in town didn't pay their taxes then!" Sprig said. "Give or take."

"Hmmm… I think we got some investigating to do my dear brother!" Marcy said as she opened her satchel. "Let's get to work!"

The two spent the afternoon trailing the toads from a distance, using invisibility glyphs to make sure they stayed hidden.

Something that came from that by complete accident though, was what happened when Marcy drew the glyph wrong.

"…" Marcy said… or at least, she was trying to say.

"What? Couldn't quite catch that Marcy." Sprig pointed out.

"I said, why didn't it turn me invisible?" Marcy asked, though the glyph turned to dust just beforehand. "… Wait…"

She then drew the glyph again, making sure to do it the same way as the last one.

"I think I accidentally put the light glyph on the wrong side…" Marcy said.

Then, she activated the glyph and began talking again, resulting in no noise at all.

"Cool! A silence glyph!" Sprig said happily.

Deciding a quick test was in order though, Marcy kicked a nearby bucket, which also caused no noise.

Deactivating the glyph, she had stars in her eyes.

"A silence glyph that keeps me from making noise whatsoever?! SO COOL!" Marcy said happily.

"Yeah… say, weren't we supposed to be doing something?" Sprig asked.

Suddenly, a crash followed by Wally's screaming was heard in the distance.

"… Right, Toads." Marcy said as the two began running.

When they arrived at Wally's home, which was surprisingly nice, they saw the toads were ransacking the place.

"That's weird…" Sprig said.

"What's weird?" Marcy asked.

"Wally ALWAYS pays his taxes!" Sprig pointed out.

"Wait really?" Marcy asked. "But… what about…?"

About a week earlier

The Plantars were all working the stand that they were not at all expecting to be taken away from them just a few days later, when Wally suddenly walked into the market.

"Why hello there my fellow tax payers! Mighty fine day to have your taxes payed off isn't it? Guess who just finished his!" Wally said with a wide smile on his face.

"… Uh… why is he…?"

"Eh, just typical Wally." Sprig pointed out.

"Uh… huh…" Marcy said.

'He is absolutely lying about paying his taxes…'

"Marcy, he wasn't lying." Sprig explained.

"What? Then why would he go and say all of that?" Marcy asked.

"That's just how Wally is. We're all just kinda used to it." Sprig pointed out.

"… Huh… but wait, where does he get the money?" Marcy asked. "I don't think I've ever seen him work or anything."

"I… actually… I don't know… He goes traveling outside the valley every so often and I guess he just gets the money then." Sprig said.

"… Weird. Anyways." Marcy said. "What do you think happened with his taxes?"

The two then sat there and began thinking.

Suddenly though.

"Hurry along Toadie!" They heard Toadsworth say from a distance.

"MEEP!" Marcy yelped as she grabbed Sprig, held her breath, and activated an invisibility glyph.

While invisible, they saw Toadstool, carrying a small sack, being followed by Toadie, who was carrying a sack larger than Toadstool.

'… You know, you gotta feel bad for the little guy…' Marcy thought.

"We gotta get moving while the townsfolk are pre-occupied!" Toadstool said.

"Coming… sir…" Toadie said as he struggled to follow.

Suddenly though, something fell out of a small hole in Toadies sack.

When they were out of view, Marcy took a deep breath before she grabbed the object.

"A copper coin?" Marcy asked.

"Why are they carrying so much copper around?" Sprig asked.

"Hmmm… Wait…" Marcy said as a thought occurred to her.

The giant list of names, Wally not paying his taxes despite evidence that he did, and Toadstool, the money-grubbing toad that hasn't fixed the mountain of problems with the town that Marcy had become VERY acquainted with recently, as a result of him quadrupling the rent…

"Oh he did NOT!" Marcy said, suddenly seething.

"Uh, Marcy?" Sprig asked.

"No time, come on!" Marcy said as she began following Toadstool.

"Oh! Uh… Right!" Sprig said as he began to follow.

This whole situation was really… weird to him.

Especially Marcy now… he'd never seen her be… well, mad at all! She was more gentle than anything he had ever seen!

But that would have to wait, she was already stomping ahead angrily and he did NOT want her to do something she regretted.

Marcy meanwhile, had a million thoughts running through her head at the moment.

"What does he use all that money for anyways?! Not the betterment of the town I'll tell you that!" Marcy said to herself. "I swear, if my hunch is right I am gonna have some WORDS with that toad!"

Shortly after, they arrived back at the town square, where a cloth was put up, obscuring the view of… something.

"Uh… what's that?" Marcy asked Sprig who had caught up to her.

"Hmm… I think I remember hearing about how Toadstool was putting up a new statue of himself here." Sprig explained.

"A ne- seriously?!" Marcy asked. "Ok, THAT'S IT!"

She then suddenly grabbed the cloth, and began to pull.

"Marcy WAIT!"

When the cloth was removed, they saw Toadstool and Toadie, loading up a massive amount of copper coins into the statue's…

"KEEP THOSE COINS OUT OF THAT BU- ok that sounded better in my head…" Marcy said.

"Wha- what are you kids doing here?!" Toadstool said like he had been caught red handed… cause he was.

"Looking for the missing taxes!" Sprig said. "Which you stole!"

"Just wait until the town finds out you money-grubbing jerk!" Marcy said accusingly.

"Well then… guess they'll have to never find out!" Toadstool said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah?!" Marcy said.

She then pulled out a plant glyph and summoned vines to ensnare Toadstool and Toadie.

"What the?! I knew you were some kinda monster!" Toadstool said.

"To jerks like you maybe! Come on Sprig!" Marcy shouted before the two began running back towards Wally's house.

While running though, Marcy started to develop a pit in her stomach, but she'd deal with that later.

Saving the town from Toadstool's corrupt actions came first.

When they got to Wally's house, they saw the toads were gone, with Wally sobbing outside.

"Don't worry Wally, we'll get your stuff back." Marcy said before patting Wally on the back.

Wally then looked up with a mix of hope and regret in his eyes.

"Really? After… after everything I did and said to you?" Wally asked.

Marcy couldn't help but smile at that.

"Wally, I can't blame you for any of that." Marcy explained. "I mean, if a frog like you came to my world, I'm pretty sure we'd act a lot worse… and probably dissect you at some point."

"… Thank you…"

"Hey, if you're done, we gotta figure out where the toads are!" Sprig pointed out.

"Right, let's follow these tracks!" Marcy declared before dashing off to the distance… she did manage to trip over her own feet though.

Sighing to himself, Sprig began to follow.

After standing there staring at their retreating figures, Wally decided that he had a job to do.

"SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT!" Marcy shouted as the two were sprinting along the tracks.

Their pursuit of the toads had led them pretty much all over town, from Maddie's bakery, to Ivy's tea shoppe (Sprig not so subtly reassuring Ivy that they would fix everything), to even Ms. Croakers home.

Now though, the tracks were heading out of town, in a direction that there was only one home they could possibly be going to.

Their home.

When the house came into view, they saw the toads struggling to get Bessie under control.

"Are they planning on taking Bessie?!" Sprig asked.

"Not on my watch!" Marcy shouted as she charged ahead.

She then did something that surprised even her: Tackling the female toad to the ground to get her away from the snail.

"Leave that snail alone!" Marcy shouted.

"Marcy!" Polly and Hop Pop shouted.

"Listen to me, this is all just a HUGE misunderstanding! Come with me and I'll…"

"WHAT IN THE HECK IS THAT THING?!" The female toad shouted.

"Some sort of… gangly monster?" The leader said, completely unsure.

"Not a monster, just a human. Now listen." Marcy started.

The leader, who began brandishing a hammer just frowned.

"Now hold on, don't think I'm going to let this stand." He said. "You come out of no-where and attack us, then you want to tell us what all these dumb frogs have been trying to say all day, that they paid their taxes when they clearly didn't!"

"Oh uh… yeah… I guess that sounds bad… but!"

"No buts!" The toad said. "Now, get out of our way, or this is gonna get violent."

'Well then… that didn't go according to plan…' Marcy thought as she pulled out some glyphs.

"PFFT! She plans on fighting us with paper?!" The female toad laughed out. "Come on Bog, let's trash this twerp!"

"Gladly." The leader, apparently named Bog, said with a smirk on his face.

The toads all brandished their weapons, began to charge at her.

"WAH!" Marcy shouted as she quickly leapt out of the way.

She then used a fire glyph to send a ball of fire towards Bog, who swatted it out of the air with his hammer.

"What the heck was that?!" The Female asked.

"Dunno, don't let your guards down Fens and Mire." Bog said. "This… thing, clearly has some sort of… weird voodoo trick up her sleeves."

"It's magic! Now can you please just listen to me?!" Marcy asked.

The toads didn't respond, and simply began charging at her.

Dodging out of the way, she used an ice glyph to freeze Fens' feet to the ground.

She then used a light glyph to distract Bog and Mire while she began pulling out more glyphs.

At this point, Sprig joined in, and shot mud into the two male's eyes, blinding them.

Internally thanking her brother, she used a pair of plant glyphs to restrain the remaining two toads in vines, just like she did with Toadstool and Toadie earlier.

"Phew, thanks Sprig!" Marcy said, thanking him externally this time.

"No pro- WATCH OUT!" Sprig suddenly shouted.

"Huh?"

While it was true that she had at some point restrained all the toads, she was not counting on the first one breaking the ice with her kanabō.

By the time she noticed, Fens was already swinging her weapon towards Marcy, who feebly put her left arm up to try and defend herself.

The result was a VERY distressing sound as the weapon made contact.

Marcy immediately fell to her knees, tears forming in her eyes as she began holding her arm close.

"Marcy!" The rest of the Plantars shouted as they went to her side.

"Hehehe… this is just what you get for opposing us." Fens said as she raised the kanabō above her head, keen on finishing the job.

Thankfully though, Marcy managed to put her good arm to the ground, and summoned more vines to fully restrain the final toad.

"Ah nuts…" Fens said.

"Now… will you please… listen?!" Marcy gasped out, very clearly in a lot of pain.

"WAAAAAAAAIT!"

Looking to the source of the voice, they saw Toadstool and Toadie running towards them.

"Don't listen to what they say! They stole the taxes!" Toadstool shouted.

"What?!" Sprig shouted. "That was you!"

"Say WHAT?!" Hop Pop asked.

"Hold on, what's this about stolen taxes?" Bog asked.

"He…. stole them. Keeping them inside… hollow statue…" Marcy explained.

"That was her!" Toadstool shouted. "I mean really, do you want to listen to the mayor, or this weird creature?"

"Hmmm… fair point." Bog said. "Let us out so we can arrest her, and we'll give everyone their stuff back."

"What?!" Sprig shouted.

Toadstool complied, and picked up a sword that one of the toads dropped during the fight.

"STOP!"

Looking over, they saw Wally and a multitude of townsfolks running towards them.

"She didn't do anything!" Wally announced.

"Psh, don't listen to him, he's the town loon!" Toadstool said.

"He's right!" Felicia said. "Marcy has been nothing but an angel since she showed up! There's no chance that she'd steal the taxes!"

The rest of the town all began to speak up, all singing Marcy's praises.

"She filled all the holes in the roads!"

"She fixed my fruit stand!"

"She rebuilt my house!"

"She's not a monster! She's one of us!"

Marcy couldn't help but tear up at this… well, either that or the pain was getting to her.

Toadstool then began to sweat, which Bog noticed.

"Hmm… seems we were mislead…" Bog said, glaring at Toadstool.

"Wha- huh?! But…"

"Let us out… NOW!" Bog commanded.

"Yes sir!" Toadstool said as he cut the vines.

Bog then took a glance at Marcy.

"Get that broken arm wrapped up, we'll talk in town." Bog said.

"R-right…" Marcy said feeble.

"Come on Marcy, let's get you patched up." Hop Pop said as he began leading her inside, a frog that turned out to be the town's doctor following them inside.

—

Later, Marcy's arm was wrapped in a cast and held up by a sling, having deduced that it was, in fact, broken.

Bog swung his hammer at the statue, freeing all the copper coins inside, before glaring at Toadstool.

The mayor, who was backing away, tried to reason with the crowd, before he was run off.

"Hmph… coward." Bog said.

"Say uh… I don't suppose you've ever seen another human like me in the toadlands, have you?" Marcy asked.

"… Sorry to say, I haven't." Bog admitted. "If I did, I probably would of been prepared for that… voodoo trick you did."

"It's just magic…" Marcy said. "And that's just a me thing."

"Hmph…"

"If you do see her… could you send her my way?" Marcy asked.

"I'll think about it." Bog said. "Don't get your hopes up."

"R-right…" Marcy said sadly.

Bog then loaded up the coppers into his cart, before the toads rode off.

"Are you actually gonna think about helping her?" Fens asked.

"Psh, no." Bog said. "If I see another one of those, it's dead meat."

Marcy watched them ride off, a bit of disappointment filling her heart.

"Don't worry, this probably just means she's not in the valley." Hop Pop said.

"Yeah, I know…" Marcy said. "Still, it's not like he patrols the toad lands… maybe if we got in contact with their captain…"

"Well good luck with that!"

Looking over, they saw Toadstool glaring at her.

"Don't think I'll ever help you get in contact with them though, you just ruined your chances." Toadstool said before storming off.

Marcy's eyes went wide at this.

"Oh… oh no…"

"Well… that's not good…" Sprig said sadly.

Marcy then looked down.

"Eh, who needs him?" Wally asked. "We'll figure something out kiddo!"

"… Thanks Wally." Marcy said.

"And… sorry for all the trouble I've given ya." Wally said.

"It's all in the past." Marcy said. "Still… despite the trouble this is causing… I don't think I'd take any of that back in a heartbeat."

"Well, good. Proud of ya Marcy." Hop Pop said. "Now come on! Let's go get Stumpy's!"

Marcy smiled at that.

"Sure thing." Marcy said.

And with that, Marcy and her family began walking towards Stumpy's, the rest of the town following.

Seeing everyone follow her like that… made her smile.

That day wasn't all bad after all.

End of Chapter 10

So sorry for the long break, life has been keeping me really busy, and I didn't have any time to write this chapter out. We are back though! Gonna finish out this batch then take another break to get myself a nice backlog of chapters to put up for both stories.

I really want to try and get three more chapters done for this batch, since that I feel is the best time to end the batch, but we'll see.

This chapter was a challenge at first, cause I thought it was gonna be really short due to not having too many ideas, but as you can tell, I figured it out and it was smooth sailing from there. A bit of an omission that I want to point out is that at the end, I considered having a part where Mary remembered Sasha saving her from being bullied. Maybe I'll include it in a later chapter, but we'll see.

Also, silence glyph! Don't have an immediate plan for it, but it'll come into play for stealthy situations later. Figured the layout of the glyph makes sense, but don't think I'll explain the layout of the glyph combo's from now on.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and see you all next time for a very fun, but pretty important chapter for Marcy…

Time for some anime!