Anne and Y/N were standing at the Plantar's vegetable stand and tending to Mrs Croaker as she paid them two cooper coins for two carrots.
Mrs Croaker: Here you go, dearies.
Anne: Catch ya later, Mrs. Croaker!
Mrs Croaker: Oh, they'll never catch me!
Y/N: That woman sure is amazing.
She laughs as she leaves and the two turn to Maddie who is at her father's baking stand stirring a cauldron.
Anne: Hey, Maddie! Happy market day!
Her head slowly and creepily twists around as she smiles to them.
Anne: Classic creepy Maddie.
Slowly, a vegetable barrel lid opened and Sprig's head popped out.
Anne: Uh, what are you doing?
Sprig: Hiding. Ever since Maddie and I got engaged, things between us have been... awkward.
Anne: Dude, if you don't want to be engaged anymore, just go break it off.
Sprig: Break up with her? To her face?! She'll kill me!
He climbed into Anne's hair as Maddie chopped bread while laughing maniacally.
Anne: Look, breakups are no big deal. I used to do it for my friends all the time. They called me the Breakup Queen. Also, Angel of Death.
Y/M: Is that supposed to be flattering?
Sprig: Perfect! You go break up with her for me, and I'll go find a new hiding spot.
They started to walk off, not watching where they're going and accidentally crash into Barry who was holding a saucepot of blue berries that fall into a mudpile.
Barry: Gracious me!
Y/N: Hey ... Barry.
Sprig: Oops. Sorry about that, Barry.
Anne: I didn't see you there, Barry.
Barry: Shucks, kids. Don't worry about it. Nothing gets Barry down.
Barry takes out two lollipops from behind Sprig and Anne's ears and hands it to them.
Sprig: Candy magic.
Barry: And here, one for you Y/N.
Barry places a hand in Y/N's pocket and pulls out a Berry Blast Fizzy Pop and closed Y/N's hand around it. His eyes grew fuzzy as Barry gave a secretive wink to him.
Barry: Have a "Barry" good day.
Barry jollily goes off to his stand and as soon as he announced his presence, it seemed like the whole of Wartwood flocked around his stand.
Sprig: There goes Barry, sweetest frog in all of Wartwood.
Anne: Swell. And now to break up with Maddie for ya.
Anne starts to walk over to Maddie's stand but she sees doughy figures of herself, Y/N and Sprig burning in the baking ovens and she walks back to the Plantar stand.
Anne: Or maybe breaking up by text would be better.
Sprig: By wha--?
Y/N: It's probably a human thing.
Anne: By text. It's not super cool, but, hey, everybody's done it at least once.
Sprig: Now we're both cowards.
Anne starts to write a letter and folds it into a paper airplane.
Letter: "Dear Maddie,
I break up with you.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-Sprig"
Sprig: Whoa.
Y/N: Are we sure this is a good idea? Maddie doesn't seem like the kind of person you would want to really upset.
Anne: Live love lie baby!
She tosses the airplane to Maddie and it lands in her hair. She opens and reads it for a moment, looks up at the three who smile awkwardly at her and she walks away.
Sprig: Huh. That wasn't so bad.
Anne: See? Like I said, no problem.
Y/N: I mean, if theres no repercussions then this is going to be a really boring chapter.
The next morning, Y/N wakes up unnaturally early. He clutches his stomach and runs into the bathroom, holding his head over the sink. He gags for a moment as a large blue ball comes out of his throat. He slowly holds it in his hand and inspects it.
Y/N: Barry's Berry Blast Fizzy Pop? But how? I-
He gags again as another comes out of his mouth. He suddenly hears Anne scream downstairs and rushes to go find her. As he gets downstairs, he sees Anne with feathers growing out of her and Sprig with big bushy ginger eyebrows that covered his vision.
Anne: Sprig! What happened to your face?
She squawked right after her sentence as she immediately put her hand to her mouth.
Sprig: Whoa! What happened to your voice?
They looked over to Y/N and Anne let out a sigh of relief.
Anne: Atleast you're alright, Y/N.
As she said that, a berry blast shot out of his mouth and hit Sprig in the face. It was at that moment Hop Pop came downstairs from his bedroom and greeted the three.
Hop Pop: Morning, kids. Goodness gracious, boy! What's on your face?
Sprig: I dunno. I just woke up like this.
Anne: And me. Anytime I try to talk I-- [squawks]
Y/N: And I'm a candy cannon!
Polly hopped downstairs sleepily as she began searching around for something.
Polly: Have you guys seen my toothbrush?
She stares at Anne and Sprig for a moment before bursting into laughter. Anne glares at her for a moment before roughly slapping Y/N on the back, shooting a berry blast at her. Hop Pop grabs Anne by the ear and pulls her down to inspect her.
Hop Pop: Hmm. Woke up like this, you say? Hmm... I've seen all I need to. You three ... have been cursed!
Anne: Cursed? [squawks] That's a thing here?!
Hop Pop: This land of ours is home to many arts, Anne. Sculpture, mosaics, and of course... THE DARK ARTS!
Y/N: Yeah Anne, you oughta know this stuff by now.
Sprig: Cursed?! But-but how? When?
Hop Pop: Well, it takes about a night for a curse to kick in. Any of you upset anyone yesterday?
Anne, Y/N and Sprig: Maddie!
Y/N: Hold on, what did I even do to her? Wrong place at the wrong time sort of thing?
Anne: Dude, you've got to go talk to her.
Polly: Any way you could wait till tomorrow? Because I am loving this.
The ginger hair covers Sprig's mouth in a big bushy beard.
Sprig: Hey, I think it's getting better.
Anne: Sprig, we have to go talk to Maddie. Only she can reverse this!
Sprig: You're right. Or maybe we can try lifting this curse ourselves, without any awkward conversations.
Anne: Okay, but hurry. I've got a really bad feeling about where this is headed.
She notices a line of ants and begins pecking at them. Y/N launches an array of berry blasts at her.
Y/N: NOT MY BABIES!
Three hours later Sprig was stood over a cauldron trying to make a counter curse himself. He stirs the cauldron but it explodes in his face. He sighs and looks over at the couch where the rest of the family were sat.
Sprig: How you doing over there guys?
Anne sets down a newspaper to show herself covered fully in feathers and a beak.
Hop Pop: Anne, are you okay?
Anne: You know, it's actually not that bad.
Y/N gags again as multiple berry blasts fall from his mouth and into a bucket he was holding. He sets the bucket down next to 10 other buckets as he looks extremely tired.
Y/N: I don't want to see a berry ever again.
Sprig is sent flying across the room as another explosion blasts in his face.
Sprig: I think I'm getting closer.
Anne: Sprig, enough is enough. You are going to get Maddie to lift this curse and that's that.
Sprig: Fine, fine. But it's gonna be sooo awkward.
He opens the door and sees Maddie on the other side, holding a bread basket.
Maddie: Got Mr. Plantar's bread order here.
Sprig immediately shuts the door in her face and presses his body against it.
Y/N: Well thats convenient.
Sprig: Ahh! She's here! Someone hide me.
The door falls ontop of Sprig, crushing him underneath.
Polly: RUN! OBJECTS BEND TO HER WILL!
Hop Pop: Nope. That's on me. Forgot to fix those hinges.
Sprig crawls out from the door and faces Maddie at the door.
Sprig: Oh... Hey, Maddie.
Maddie: Sprig.
Anne nudges Sprig towards her and Y/N pelts him in the back of the head with a berry blast shot.
Anne: Stop stalling, dude.
Sprig: Uh... 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.
Maddie: Well, your breakup literally hit me in the face. But as much as I would've preferred an actual conversation, I was fine with what you wrote.
Sprig: Oh, thank goodness.
Anne: Told ya. Breakup "qua-ween."
She does a funky lil dance and a small crow lands in her head feathers.
Y/N: So wait, what did I do to upset you?
Maddie looks at Y/N a little confused and raised an eyebrow.
Maddie: Huh?
Sprig: Do you think you can you take these curses off of us? Please?
Maddie: Sorry, but I can't. Curses can only be lifted by the caster, and this isn't my curse.
Anne: What?!
Y/N: Wait, does that mean we're cool?
Maddie nods slowly yet still confused. Y/N looks excited and turn to Polly.
Y/N: I think we got another shopping trip buddy!
Sprig: But if it wasn't you, then who?
Maddie: Hmm.
She takes out a large bowl and mixes some ingredients into it which spews out a large puff of purple smoke which makes everyone cough. A glowing blue line comes from out the bowl and out of the house.
Maddie: This trail will lead us to the caster. Quickly! Before it goes cold.
The four run out of the house following the trail through the woods.
Y/N: Hey Anne! You can talk to birds right? What if we made a business out of translating bug speak and bird speak to english?
Anne: We'll see dude.
Maddie: Why'd you think it was me who cursed you?
Sprig: Well, you do give off a creepy vibe.
Maddie: Just because I seem creepy to you doesn't mean I'm a bad person. I'll have you know, I learned magic to help people, not hurt them. Sheesh! Appearances aren't everything,
Sprig.
Sprig: Yeah, well that's... That's a really good point.
The crow from Anne's hair pops out for a moment and squawks.
Anne: Kurt the crow says this will all end in tears.
They kept running after the blue line that lead them into a dark and creepy shed. They slowly creak open the door and look around, seeing shelves lined with jars filled with candy and other treats.
Anne: What kind of evil person would live in a place like this?
A light flickers on and all gasp as they see Barry standing ominously across from them in the shed.
Barry: Hello, children.
All: Barry?
Barry: Enjoying the curse I put on you?
Sprig: Why, Barry? Why?
Barry: Why? I'll tell you why! 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.
Sprig: Yeah, that was our bad. Looks can be deceiving. We get it.
Anne: Ah, right, right. The lesson thing. Barry, we're sorry.
Y/N: Please lift the curse.
Sprig: You can't see it really, but I'm begging on my knees!
Barry: Hmm, let me think. Never! Not only am I petty, but I'm very unforgiving.
Y/N: Oh come on!
Maddie: As a curse wielder myself, this abuse of magic offends me.
She takes out a cloth ball from her pocket and launches it at Barry who narrowly dodges it, making a large blast mark on the wall.
Barry: Hmm? Oh, goodness!
Maddie: You should never curse someone unless they really deserve it. And, buddy, you deserve it!
Barry goes to his cauldron and picked up some curses and threw them at Maddie.
Barry: Ah! Two can play at that game.
The two curse wielders fought bravely yet none were able to hit each other. After minutes that felt like hours, Barry only had one curse left in his arsenal and Maddie was all out.
Barey: Ah! My last curse!
Maddie: I'm out! What do we do?
She looked over to Anne and got a piece of cloth from the insides of her shirt.
Maddie: Give me a hand.
Anne: You mean literally? Or figuratively? Ow!
Maddie rushed over to Anne and plucked some feathers from her, then rushing over to Sprig and yanking some hair off of him.
Sprig: Ow. What the heck?
Maddie: Y/N! Berry me!
Y/N launched a berry from his mouth which she caught and combined all three into a curse. Barry grabbed his curse and threw it at her but she caught it and combined them all, launching the bundle at Barry. As the dust settled, Anne and Sprig's body had turned to normal and Barry had turned into a large round yellow bird.
Barry: Oh, no. My beautiful body.
Anne: We're back to normal! She turned the curses back on him!
Sprig: Maddie, you did it! I can talk!
Y/N: Oh come on, I was just starting to like my curse!
His eyes drifted off to the side as he saw a jar full of berry blast fizzy pops. He glared and smashed the jar in with his claws.
Y/N: Nevermind.
Barry: All right, you crazy kids bested me. Now go on, turn me back.
Maddie: Nothing doing. You're way too dangerous.
Barry: What? You can't just leave me like this.
Sprig: Aw, come on, Maddie. We did him wrong.
Maddie: Fine. I'll change him back. But for a price.
Maddie had Barry give her a wheelbarrow full of candy. As they were about to leave, Anne noticed something in the corner of the shed.
Anne: Uhh, guys, what's Hop Pop's old vegetable stand doing in here?
Time seemed to slow down for Y/N. He sweated nervously as all of their eyes began to track to the vegetable stand.
Y/N: I'm uhh, sure it's not really his, must be someone else's, let's go now!
He started to try push them out of the shed but Barry put an arm infront of them.
Barry: Why, did you not know? Dearie dearie me, Y/N. It must not be my looks who are just deceiving.
Anne: Y/N, what is he talking about?
Y/N: I-
Barry: Yes! Why not tell them about how you-
Y/N: Barry! No! Please!
Barry: Oh Barry yes please. About how you sold the Plantar's vegetable stand just to stuff your face with my new sweeties.
Sprig: Y/N ... no. You didn't?
Anne: Y/N is this true?
Y/N: No, it's- he lured me in! I had no clue what I was getting into! He tricked me! You guys believe me right? We're Y/Anne against the world!
He grabbed Anne by the hands but she wrestled him away from her.
Anne: You sold the Plantar stand! How could you do this to them! To us?
Y/N: He-
Anne: No! I don't want to hear any of your excuses. If looks are deceiving then you're just a selfish bug!
Tears welled in Y/N's eyes as he pushed past them, flying into the forest leaving scratch marks on the trees with his claws as he left.
Barry: Oopsie me. Guess my little subjugation spell tore your little friendship apart.
Anne: Your ... what?
Barry: Oh you should've let him explain himself. You see, the Plantars have always been a pain in my backside when it came to competition. Seeing Y/N man the stand all alone gave me the perfect opportunity to get rid of the competition. So i cooked up a spell to make him irresistible to my berry blasts.
Anne: So that means ...
Barry: That's right! And oopsie daisy, looks like he won't be coming back for a long time.
Anne quickly rushed out, looking through the woods and the trees as she rushed deeper and deeper calling out for Y/N. But he was already gone and there was nothing she could do to bring him back.