Author's Note: Happy New Year, everyone. Let's hope 2025 turns out well.

Enjoy the chapter. Any and all comments are welcome.

T'Challa and Anne helped man the Plantar stand during a busy shopping hour for the citizens of Wartwood. They were just finished doing a transaction with Mrs. Croaker.

"Here you go, dearies." she said handing a handful of copper coins to Anne.

"Catch you later, Mrs. Croaker." Anne said.

"Oh, they'll never catch me." Mrs. Croaker laughed walking away.

T'Challa laughed. "She's certainly exciting." He then glanced down the aisle and spotted Maddie manning her father's stand selling breads and pastries. "Happy market day, Maddie."

Maddie looked back at T'Challa with an ominous stare and a malicious that sent shivers down his spine.

"Whoa. Still gives me the chills."

"That's just classic creepy Maddie." Anne said before noticing Sprig hiding among her produce. "Sprig? What are you doing?"

"Hiding." Sprig said. "Ever since Maddie and I got engaged, things between us have been… awkward."

"You mean since you already fell in love with Ivy?" T'Challa asked.

"Yeah, more or less." Sprig admitted.

"Dude, if you don't want to be engaged anymore, just go break it off." Anne advised.

"Break up with her? To her face?" Sprig asked springing out of the produce and hiding in Anne's hair. "She'll kill me."

"Look," Anne said pulling Sprig out of her hair, "Breakups are no big deal."

"I wouldn't say that." T'Challa said. "My last serious relationship was hard to end, but it was best for us. As for my relationship before that… Well, I doubt Maddie is anything like Zanda."

"Well, it's always been easy for me." Anne said. "I used to break up for my friends all the time. They called me 'The Breakup Queen'. Also, 'Angel of Death'."
"Your friends?" T'Challa asked. "Sasha and Marcy used to make you end their relationships on their behalf."

"Well, mostly Sasha did. Marcy didn't have a lot of relationships." Anne said. "But still, I helped Sasha break up with every boy and girl she was seeing every other month."

"I got it!" Sprig cried out happily. "Anne, you can go break up with her for me, and I'll go find a new hiding spot."

"So you're actually going to have someone else break up with her on your behalf instead of dealing with the problem yourself?" T'Challa asked.

"I got no problem with it." Anne said before giving Sprig a high five so hard, it sent him startling backwards.

Sprig stopped when he bumped into another frog, a happy looking man with a tall hat, red hair, and huge dimples to both ends of his smile. Sprig's clumsiness caused the frog to drop a whole pot full of blue, sparkling berries scattering them into the mud.

"Gracious me!"

"Oops. Sorry about that, Barry." Sprig apologized to the frog.

"I didn't see you there, Barry." Anne said.

"My deepest apologies, Barry." T'Challa said.

Barry gave a smile to the kids. "Shucks, kids. Don't worry about it. Nothing gets Barry down." He reached behind Anne and Sprig's ears and pulled out three lollipops amazing them. "For you. Sorry I couldn't pull the third out of your ear, young man. I only have two hands."

"It's all right, Barry." T'Challa said taking his lollipop along with the others. "As long as everyone is cheerful."

"Have a 'Barry' good day." Barry laughed before going to his berry stand.

"There goes Barry, the sweetest frog in all of Wartwood." Sprig said.

"His Barry puns may be cheesy, but he has a good heart." T'Challa said.

"Swell." Anne said. "And now, to break up with Maddie for you."

Anne walked away from the stand and started approaching Maddie, but stopped when she noticed her throwing something in the furnace beside her. Inside were three minifigures shaped like Anne, T'Challa, and Sprig screaming in terror. Once the furnace door closed, Anne saw the minifigures bursting into flames and melting down. Anne quickly stepped back to the stand without saying another word.

"So how'd it go?" T'Challa asked.

"So… talking to her isn't going to do anyone good." Anne said. "So new plan: we break up with her by text."

"By what?" Sprig asked.

"By text?" T'Challa asked. "Anne, that's a despicable way of ending a relationship."

"Okay, so maybe it's not super cool," Anne said, "But hey, everyone's done it once."

"Anne, you're the only one in Wartwood who has a cell phone." T'Challa said. "There's nothing to text to."

"No, but we've got a pen and paper." Anne said taking said items and writing down her breakup message on it.

"Yeah, this will turn out well." T'Challa said sarcastically.

Once Anne was finished, she folded the paper into an airplane and threw it over to Maddie's face. She then removed it and opened it up to read it. After a quick second of reading it, she looked up to give a vengeful stare at the three, who nervously waved at her. She narrowed her only-showing eye at them before turning around and walking away.

"Huh. That wasn't so bad." Sprig said.

"See? Like I said, no problem." Anne said.

"We'll see about that." T'Challa said skeptically.

They had no idea that later on that very night, an evil spell would be brewing just for them.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Anne's scream shocked T'Challa out of his sleep. When he raised his head to the sound of his friend, he caught a glimpse of her running upstairs.

"Anne, what's wrong?!" T'Challa asked. He ran upstairs to catch up with her in the living room by the stairs.

That's when he widened his eyes at a very peculiar sight. Sprig and Anne stood before him, but they had bizarre looked to them that didn't match how they looked before bed. Anne's skin was sprouting little, brown bird feathers. As for Sprig, he had orange hair coming from the top of his head, even covering his eyes.

"Sprig? Anne?" T'Challa asked. "What happened to you?"

Anne looked at T'Challa and gave a startled yell of her own. "What happened to US?! What happened to YOU?!" For some reason, she let out a bird cry as she spoke.

"What?" T'Challa asked brushing on his face. He stopped when he touched what felt like a few long strands of hair beside his nose that were sensitive. He turned to find a mirror on the wall and took a good look at himself.

T'Challa was petrified upon seeing himself. It wasn't hair he was feeling on his face. It was whiskers. Cat whiskers to be exact. His eyes became big and yellow like a cat, and orange fur was starting to grow out of his skin.

"What the…" T'Challa asked. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Sprig said. "When I woke up, I had this hair stuff growing over my eyes, so I couldn't see."

"Same here." Anne said before pointing at her feathers. "These things started growing out of me. And whenever I tried to talk, I just…" She suddenly started squawking and making bird calls. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

"Morning, kids." Hop Pop greeted as he entered the room. He then cried out in shock when he saw their new appearances. "Goodness gracious, boy! What's on your face?"

"I don't know." Sprig said. "I just woke up like this."

"And me and Anne too." T'Challa said. "Anne also can't stop making bird noises, and I'm growing orange fur. It's like I'm turning into a tabby or something."

Behind them, Polly bounced down the stairs. "Have you guys seen my toothbrush?" Instead of an answer, the others turned to her showing their facial changes, which made her laugh. "HAHAHAHA! YES!"

Hop Pop pulled Anne aside to look at her feathers. "Hmm. Woke up like this, you say?" He then walked over to T'Challa and Sprig examining their strange features as well. "I've seen all I need to. You three… have been cursed!"

"Cursed?" Anne squawked. "That's a thing here?"

"This land of ours is home to many arts, Anne." Hop Pop said. "Sculpture, mosaics, and, of course… the dark arts!"

"Cursed?" Sprig asked. "But how? When?"

"Well, it takes about a night for a curse to kick in." Hop Pop explained. "Either of you upset anyone yesterday?"

"Maddie!" all three kids cried out in realization.

"This makes sense!" T'Challa said. "Sprig breaks up with her, and now, she's taking it out on all three of us."

"Dude, you've GOT to go and talk to her!" Anne said to Sprig.

"Any way you could wait till tomorrow?" Polly asked as new hair grew out of Sprig's mouth. "Because I am loving this."

"We don't have time for this." T'Challa said. "Sprig, you have to talk with Maddie. If this goes well, maybe we could convince her to lift the curse."

Sprig sighed. "You're right… or maybe, we can try lifting this curse ourselves, without any awkward conversations."

"What? You think you can lift this curse?" T'Challa asked. "I've never seen you once cast a spell."

"I've got a couple of books about curses in my study." Hop Pop said. "If you like, maybe you can find something that could help."

"Okay, but hurry. I've got a real bad feeling about where this is headed." Anne said. Her eyes then spotted a trail of ants crawling in a line and, out of bird instinct, bent down to pick them into her mouth.

T'Challa was grossed out for a minute before covering his mouth. "I swear, if I eat one mouse, I'm out of here."

Three hours passed, and by that time, the cursed children's features have gotten much worse. Sprig had orange hair growing out of every inch of his body, Anne had become a complete bird, and T'Challa had gone from a human being a walking orange tabby. The former humans sat in the living room waiting while Sprig tries cooking up a cure for the curse using Hop Pop's book.

BOOM!

Sprig coughed recovering from the explosion of the failed cure that blew up in his face. "Well, that didn't work either. How are you doing there, guys?"

"You know, it's actually not that bad." Anne said. "Watch this." She slipped her beak into a hole in the wooden floor and pulled out a worm, which she then proceeded to swallow.

T'Challa, horrified by what he saw, asked, "Anne, did you just eat a worm so casually?"

Anne's face fell. "I hate this curse."

"You and me both." T'Challa said looking at his cat form. "Look at me. I've gone from a fearsome panther to a docile housecat."

BOOM!

Another explosion sent Sprig flying out of the kitchen. He stopped once he hit the farthest wall.

"I think I'm getting closer." Sprig said.

"You really are blind, aren't you?" T'Challa asked. "Enough is enough. We are not going to just sit here and continue being circus freaks just because you don't want to have a couple minutes to talk to Maddie."

"T'Challa's right, dude." Anne said. "You are going to get Maddie to lift this curse, and that's that!"

Sprig sighed heavily. "Fine, fine. But it's gonna be so awkward."

"Better than being cursed." T'Challa said.

Sprig sighed once more before opening the front door. Much to his surprise, though, Maddie was already standing on the front porch with a basket full of bread in her hand.

"Got Mr. Plantar's bread order here."

Sprig quickly slammed the door shut. "AHH! SHE'S HERE! SOMEONE, HIDE ME!"

Just then, the door fell flat on top of Sprig leaving Maddie a clear path into the Plantar home.

"RUN!" Polly screamed. "Objects bend to her will!"

"Nope. That's on me." Hop Pop said. "Forgot to fix those hinges."

Sprig groaned crawling out from underneath the door. He then turned and acted awkward toward his ex-fiancé. "Oh… Hey, Maddie."

"Sprig." Maddie said.

Anne squawked as she and T'Challa gave Sprig a little push. "Stop stalling, dude."

"Uh…" Sprig stammered staring at Maddie's deathly stare. After a bit of groaning, he finally spoke up. "Maddie, I'm sorry for the way I broke up with you! It was wrong of me to have Anne do it and doubly wrong that we didn't do it face to face."

"Well, your breakup literally hit me in the face." Maddie said. "But as much as I would've preferred an actual conversation, I was fine with what you wrote."

"Really?" T'Challa asked. "So you weren't offended."

"Nah. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't really a fan of being engaged to Sprig. No offense, Sprig. It's just that my magical studies leave me pretty swamped. So although his method of breaking up with me wasn't the best, I decided to just take it."

"Oh, thank goodness." Sprig sighed in relief.

"Told ya. Breakup Queen!" Anne boasted before a bird rested on her bird head like a nest.

"So can you take these curses off of us?" Sprig pleaded. "Please?"

"Sorry, but I can't." Maddie said. "Curses can only be lifted by the caster, and this isn't my curse."

"WHAT?!" everyone cried out at once surprised by Maddie's revelation.

"So you weren't the one who cursed us last night?" T'Challa asked.

"No. I told you, I was fine with the breakup." Maddie said. "Besides, T'Challa, why would I curse you? You clearly had nothing to do with it."

"That's… a good point." T'Challa said. "But then who did curse us, and why?"

Maddie thought for a moment before pulling out a small bowl of herbals which she then grounded and sprinkled glowing dust on. She then took a handful of the stuff and tossed it to the floor. After a pink explosion, a blue light escaped Anne, T'Challa, and Sprig's feet making a trail that lead outside.

"This trail will lead us to the caster." Maddie said. "Quickly, before it goes cold." She turned around and ran.

"Good. Because the last thing I want is to eat Anne." T'Challa said.

"Same." Anne agreed.

The trail lead the four kids into the forest. They ran as fast as they could to keep up with it. Anne tried to fly, but she was unsuccessful at it.

"Why'd you think it was me who cursed you?" Maddie asked.

"Circumstances, I'd say." T'Challa said. "Sprig breaks up with you, and the next morning, we're cursed. The timing just fit."

"Plus, you do give off a creepy vibe." Sprig admitted.

"Just because I seem creepy to you doesn't mean I'm a bad person." Maddie informed. "I'll have you know, I learned magic to help people, not hurt them. Sheesh. Appearances aren't everything, Sprig."

"Yeah, well, that's…" Sprig stopped himself thinking about her words. "That's a really good point."

The crow that nested in Anne's hair made a cawking sound, which Anne translated. "Kurt the crow says this will all end in tears."

After a few more feet of following the trail, the four of them stopped at the front of a solitary storage cabin. The trail stopped there, so they went on inside. It was mostly dark at first, but they could see that the walls were covered with jars full of bizarre herbal ingredients.

"What is this place?" T'Challa asked.

"It looks like a storage space for magic ingredients." Maddie said. "Though, judging by the stuff that's here, it's clear that the owner has absolutely no morals or conscience."

"What kind of evil person would live in a place like this?" Anne asked.

As if to answer her question, the room was lit up by glowing mushrooms. One by one, they lit up the room until the owner of the storage area was revealed, the same man who cursed Anne, T'Challa, and Sprig.

It was Barry.

"Hello, children."

"Barry?" everyone gasped in complete shock.

Barry chuckled. "Enjoying the curse I put on you?"

"You cursed us?" T'Challa asked. "Why? What did we ever do to you?"

"Oh, I'll tell you." Barry said. "Surely, you remember barging into me at the market yesterday? Spilling my entire stock of blue moon berries that only grow once every ten years. They were priceless! I played it cool and was sweet because my image is half my business. I may look nice, but I'm petty and vengeful on the inside."

Maddie, seeing the similar situation she was in with the others, gave them a little nudge making them see how wrong they were to just assume.

"Barry, we're sorry." Sprig said. "Please, lift the curse. You can't see it really, but I'm begging on my knees."

"Hmm, let me think…" Barry said thinking for a moment. "Okay. I'll lift it."

"You will?" everyone asked hopefully.

"But… I want something in return." Barry continued. "In exchange for your curse being lifted, I want… the panther boy's blood."

"Wait, what now?" T'Challa asked.

Maddie gave a loud gasp. "You fiend!" She then turned to T'Challa. "Don't give him your blood!"

"What? Why?" T'Challa asked. "What's so special about my blood?"

"All that special juice coursing through your veins, and you don't even know it?" Barry asked with a chuckle. "The thing is, whatever you took to make you stronger and faster than your beaked friend there is swimming somewhere in your blood. Something that special can be a real nice spell ingredient. Consider it payment for my blue moon berries."

"Don't do it!" Maddie shouted. "You've seen the kind of curses he can do with just a hair, a feather, and a batch of cat fur. Imagine what he'll do with Black Panther blood."

"It's either that, or you'll be cursed forever." Barry said.

"You're a heartless crook." T'Challa snarled.

"Thank you." Barry responded flattered.

"As a curse wielder myself, this abuse of magic offends me." Maddie said. She pulled out a couple of pouches and tossed them toward Barry. However, he avoided getting hit allowing the stuff around him get cursed instead. "You should never curse someone unless they really deserve it. And buddy, you deserve it."

She tossed another couple of curse pouches which Barry avoided. He then pulled out some pouches of his own and tossed them right back.

What followed was a heated war of curses being thrown back and forth between Maddie and Barry, each avoiding every last curse thrown at them. They narrowly avoided the curses while throwing more pouches of their own. In the meantime, the others headed to the walls to avoid getting hit by accident.

After a last blast from each of them, Maddie and Barry were blown aside narrowly getting cursed. Barry landed by his cauldron where he reached in until he pulled out another pouch.

"Ah! My last curse!" he growled.

After recovering from her fall, Maddie reached her waist for another pouch. However, she realized that there wasn't another pouch to grab. "I'm out!"

"What do we do?" Anne asked.

"Give me a hand!" Maddie ordered.

"You mean literally or literally?" Anne asked holding her wing out only for Maddie to pluck a feather from it. "OW!"

Maddie proceeded to also take a tuft of hair from Sprig's body and a whisker from T'Challa's face. It was uncomfortable for everyone, but she needed it for what she was about to do while Barry ran to her preparing to throw his last curse.

"Hey, Black Panther," Maddie called, "I need some air support! Just follow my lead!"

"All right!" T'Challa said. He didn't need his suit for what came next. With his new cat agility, he leaped ahead following Maddie as she threw her new pouch up into the air for him to grab.

Once Barry was close enough, he threw his own pouch, but Maddie caught it in her hand and threw it into the air for T'Challa to take as well.

"NOW! THROW THEM!" Maddie yelled.

"Oh, no!" Barry gasped with wide eyes just as T'Challa threw both pouches down right at him.

BOOM!

The entire storage exploded with a huge, pink flash of light creating a great puff of smoke. When it cleared, Anne, Sprig, and T'Challa coughed before getting a good look at themselves and each other. They were no longer feathered, furry, or fuzzy. They were back to their exact forms they were in before.

As for Barry, he coughed before getting a good look at himself. His body had a combination of all the curses he cast on the kids. He had a large bird body, a cat face, and orange fuzz covering his head and eyes.

"AH! My beautiful, beautiful body!" Barry panicked.

"Hey! We're back to normal!" Sprig realized.

"No more animal parts!" T'Challa cheered.

"She turned the curses back on him." Anne said.

"Very resourceful, Maddie." T'Challa congratulated.

Barry sighed stepping forward toward them. "All right. You crazy kids bested me. Now, go on. Turn me back."

"Nothing doing." Maddie refused sternly. "You're way too dangerous."

Barry cawed in shock. "What? You can't just leave me like this!"

"Aw, come on, Maddie. We did him wrong." Sprig said.

"I don't know." T'Challa said. "I mean, he did refuse to lift our curses unless I gave him my blood."

"Yeah, but just because he's that unforgiving doesn't mean we have to be." Anne said.

Maddie thought it through for a moment before glancing at the candy that Barry also had stored away. With a small smile, she turned back to the evil spellcaster. "Fine. I'll change him back… but for a price."

After changing Barry back, the kids took all the candy they could carry and brought it back to the bakery. They each had huge bags of sweets which they placed by the front door.

"Any chance we could get some of this candy?" Sprig asked.

"No way." Maddie answered.

Once the candy was set down, Kurt the crow poked his head out of Anne's hair one last time to caw a final farewell.

"Good-bye, Kurt." Anne said. "I'm not sure if all this was a blessing or a curse." She saw the bird fly away into the distance.

"It was literally a curse, Anne." T'Challa said.

"Thanks for helping us, Maddie." Sprig said. "And sorry the engagement had to end like this." He offered a handshake. "Friends?"

Maddie gave a small smile before accepting the handshake. "Friends." She then pulled Sprig in for a menacing whisper. "I can't wait to hang out."

Sprig laughed nervously pulling his hand free. "Okay. Still a little creepy, but I know you're a good person."

"She is." T'Challa said. "And that's why I want to give her this?" He pulled out a small vial half-full of red liquid.

One look at the liquid's faint glow was enough to make Maddie gasp. "Whoa. Is that…"

T'Challa nodded. "You said my blood can be a potent magical ingredient. That's what Barry wanted from me."

"Whoa, wait!" Anne gasped. "That's your blood? Did you…"

"It's just a small cut, Anne. Nothing to worry about." T'Challa said. "Anyway, Maddie, if there ever comes a time when my blood is needed, I trust you to use it responsibly to help us if we need it."

Maddie stared for a moment before accepting the vial. "Thank you, Black Panther. I swear on my word as an honorable spellcaster that I won't use your gift in vain. Now, if you'll excuse me, I got candy to store." She turned and walked away with the blood vial and the candy bags.

"That's a risky thing to do, giving your blood to someone." Anne said.

"If it was anyone else, sure," T'Challa said, "But not Maddie."

Later on that night, the sound of the basement door opening woke T'Challa up. He glanced around and noticed Anne wasn't in his bed. Worried for her, he headed upstairs through the open door. That's when he noticed a figure in the darkness.

T'Challa pressed his hand on a mushroom lantern to turn it on. At first, he was relieved to see it was Anne. But then, he was confused and disgusted seeing her crouch down like a bird and picking ants off the floor with her mouth.

"Uh, Anne…" T'Challa said getting her attention.

"What? You got a better way to eat ants off the floor? Sheesh." She walked away leaving T'Challa bewildered still.

"I… hope that goes away tomorrow."