Above right: Tea as a panther. (Both pictures courtesy of Agamemnon.)
Species: Werepanther
Gender: Female
First Appearance: "Mark Of The Panther"
Other Appearances: None
Tea (pronounced Tay-uh) is a native of Nigeria. She fell in love with a man named Fara Maku, but she eventually left him to pursue her own path, going to live in the city of Abuja. However, she soon found that she had been marked by a strange panther, and thereafter, whenever she became angry- which was often, due to the stress of city life- she would turn into a werepanther.
Consumed with the desire for vengeance, Tea joined a group of poachers, seeking out and skinning every panther they could find. In 1996, they decided to do the same to the panther that would be ceremonially released by Fara Maku's tribe. She warned him not to interfere, but he was forced to change into a werepanther to stop them. Tea was now enraged at Fara, for she knew he was the werepanther she had been hunting for.
Tea broke from the other poachers to hunt down Fara through the jungle,
but she was interrupted by Goliath. Furious,
Tea herself became a panther, and forced the gargoyle leader to drop her.
In her feline form, she tracked Fara to Karadigi,
the lost city of the Houka tribe. She was about to finish Fara, who'd already
been shot, off, but she was stopped by the Avalon travellers and Diane
Maza. She told her tale, and it was then that Anansi
appeared, revealing that he was the one who had
made Fara a were in the first place. Tea's hate turned to the spider,
but Anansi swatted her away with ease. Fara, realizing now he'd been selfish,
offered Anansi that he would hunt for him forever if he would free Tea
from the curse. Anansi instead preferred to have all the people present
become his hunters, and the entire group fought him and "destroyed" him
as a result. Tea regretted her previous actions as a poacher, and the two
werepanthers decided that they would use their curse to protect the jungle,
and make a sort of atonement. It is there that they remain.
Tea was an athletic African female in human form, skilled with firearms. She could also assume the form of a panther, wherein she possessed all of the typical abilities of that jungle cat. In her case, however, the transformation could also occur involuntarily when she was angry.