Elena froze, worry settling like a knot in her stomach as she slid open the painting that was the entrance to Mateo's workshop only to be greeted by clouds of dense smoke instead of the usual cheerful greeting from her royal wizard. Coughing and spluttering, she hurried forward without a second thought, blindly seeking out her best friend.

"Mateo? Mateo!" she called out frantically, "Mateo!? Are you in here?"

Where could he be? Oh, I really hope he's ok.

A small, though familiar, voice called out to her, "Elena?! Is that you?"

Relief flooded her veins at the sound of Mateo's voice. Looking around for the source, she said, "Mateo? What happened? I can't see a thing!"

"Er––" the tiny voice said, "I may have had a bit of a mishap."

"That's putting it mildly," Elena said with a smirk. "Where are you?"

"I'm over by the work table," Mateo coughed out.

"I see the table, but I don't see you. It sounds like you're shouting at me from miles away. Where are you?"

Eyebrows furrowed, Elena peered through the slowly clearing smoke, barely making out the form of the work table but still found no trace of her friend. She hurried closer to the table, until she heard, "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

She froze, looking around frantically. "What's wrong?! I still don't see you!"

"You're about to step on me!"

"What?! Step on–– you? How––"

She looked down. Though the smoke was clearing, she still couldn't see the floor or her feet or Mateo. Kneeling down, she peered around.

"Mateo?"

"Over here!" the tiny voice shouted, though she thought she heard the oddest croaking noise alongside his voice.

"Where––" she started and gasped, crying out in surprise as her eyes fell upon the small green frog staring pleadingly up at her. Though it seemed impossible, she would recognize those wide hazel green eyes anywhere. She burst into giggles. "Mateo?! What–– what happened to you? You look a little–– er–– froggy today. Why so green, mi ranito?" she teased.

Though frog-Mateo had no eyebrows to raise, Elena could almost see the sardonic glare as he croaked, "Haha, hilarious," his little froggy voice croaked. "I was working on a potion for breathing underwater, and I thought it was going well, but it exploded when I added the frogspawn! Something must have happened to the ratio of the magical reagents because even though I jumped away from the explosion, a bit of the potion splashed me and next thing I knew I was six inches tall, green and slimy with a sudden appetite for flies!" he wailed.

Even as a frog, Elena knew Mateo well enough to recognize the panic rising as his words came faster and his eyes darted around. She thought her heart would break when she saw his tiny frame shudder. Reaching down, she gently scooped up the little frog, murmuring, "Shhh…it's going to be ok. We–– we'll figure out a way to fix this." She held him carefully in one hand at her eye level and stroked his head soothingly with a finger. She grinned cheekily and said, "I don't know how, but together, we will toad-ally find a way."

Mateo groaned at the terrible frog pun. "Ugh, really, Elena?" he croaked.

Giggling, she said, "Ok, ok! Sorry! I couldn't help myself! Ok, why don't you tell me everything you know about this potion and the magic that backfired? Maybe there's a clue there that will help us fix this. Go ahead, hop to it!"

Elena grinned unrepentantly as he gave her another froggy glare. She was amused at the results of his magical mishap, but as she watched him fretfully explain the events leading to his untimely transformation, she felt a stab of pity and worry for her royal wizard. She certainly didn't want him to remain in that form. She would miss his human presence–– the thought of never seeing his crooked grin or seeing the way his eyes would light up whenever he talked about magic–– or, she blushed as she realized how he got the same look whenever he saw her. Elena knew that this would be simply unacceptable.

She wouldn't rest until he was set right–– down to the last precious lock of hair.

"I don't know what I did wrong. The potion looked exactly as the codex said it should. It is an advanced bit of magic, but I thought I was ready to tackle it. I obviously did something wrong when I added the frogspawn–– maybe it was the wrong breed of frog? Maybe it was toad spawn! What if––" his little voice rose in pitch and his words ran together as he tried to speak as quickly as the wheels of his mind were turning, Elena struggled to keep up with his explanation. " ––maybe we could concoct a dispelling potion. Or maybe I could teach you to use a tamborita and you could cast a reversal spell? "Zanamo" might work— Or I wouldn't be surprised if your scepter had a curse breaking power. I bet a power like that could fix this, but how––"

As he rambled on through plausible solution after plausible solution, Elena thought about everything she'd ever heard about curses in history and stories from her childhood. As Mateo became more frantic with each theory that he threw out, Elena thought hard. She'd heard a story once as a child–– could it possibly be true? She doubted it, but if it was, it would certainly be the easiest solution. Looking at the little frog who was still speaking a mile a minute cupped in her hands, she knew she would do anything to get her best friend back safely. Her eyes flashed with determination as she brought him closer to her face and silenced him with a kiss.

A flash of light and a swirl of magic later, she no longer held a tiny frog in her hands but instead she felt the soft warm face of her best friend cupped in her palms and his lips pressed to hers. A thrill of excitement shot through her as she realized that not only did her crazy theory work but this kiss felt so right.

Intense emotion flooded Mateo as he realized that he was human again. He was nearly overwhelmed between the relief at being human again and the surprise that not only had Elena broken the spell but that she had been willing to kiss him as a frog and was still kissing him though the spell was broken–– willingly and rather enthusiastically.

Pulling back gently, she bit her bottom lip as she smiled shyly at him. Mateo felt dizzy from the rushing thoughts and emotions swirling in his mind.

Looking at her with a dreamy and dazed expression, he said, "Or, that works too…"

Laughing, Elena threw her arms around him, supremely relieved that he was back to his old self and curious about this unexpected experience they'd just shared. Grinning, she thought about the stunned look he had after she'd kissed him. She loved his eyes. They were so expressive, she always knew exactly what he was thinking. And then there was his adorably crooked smile, which brought her thoughts to his lips— her heart fluttered as she thought about the kiss and how nice it was once he'd transformed back to himself.

Blushing, she realized that she kind of wanted to do it again.