"I feel that this stage is absolutely ridiculous. I asked my parents about this stage and they said that they never had to go through it because after all we are wizards, why do we need to stay without magic. Magic is our specialty," grumbled a brown haired boy.

"There are many who chose to stay in the human realm. I have heard that they don't feel like coming back. Some of them end up marrying people from that realm. So you need to know how to survive in a place where you cannot practice magic and if you can survive without magic in a place like this, you can be rest assured that it would be a breeze to survive in the human realm," replied a tall boy with spectacles.

​​

"Hey, how come you are using your glasses?" asked Nefasky. "Doesn't snow accumulate on it?"

"It does… Do when we are walking around, I remove it…"

"I am really hungry Nefasky and I think I can eat the entire bird that you are roasting," said a fatty witch who was sitting right next to her, salivating at the meat. The meals that were provided by the academy was too less and they had finished it all by the evening.

"Geez, Lenny! Watch your waistline. You will become fatter even you will look at this meat. Shoo away!" replied Nefasky, making all in the group laugh.

All of them chatted for a while when the peace of the night was suddenly disturbed by a low growl. All of them became alert as they got up from their places and picked up their knives. They started looking in different directions but they couldn't figure out from where the sound was coming.

They heard the growl yet again. It was closer now. Scared, one of them took his flare out. He whispered, "Should I send this off? This is too dangerous."

"I think we are surrounded by a herd of red foxes."

"Stay quiet, all of you," whispered Nefasky back to them. "Look for the source and be ready with your knives."

All of them became quiet and looked around. Since there were some pine trees where they had made the shelter, they couldn't see behind them and there was nothing up the slope.

The growling sound came closer but this time it was accompanied by more growls.

"We are being surrounded. The foxes are hunting us," whined the brown haired boy.

All of them came closer to each other and formed a circle with their backs facing inside. They had their knives ready in their hands to counterattack any beast that would jump out at them. The only sound they could hear was the sound of their own breaths mingled with the crackling of fire and low growls.

"There, look over there!" pointed Lenny towards a pine tree. A pair of golden yellow eyes was glaring at them.

"That's a wolf!" came a shaky answer.

Adrianna growled at all of them. She looked at them fiercely as she howled loudly and lashed her tail on the ground. She saw at the fire and became angrier.

To their horror, the wolf in front of them bared its jaws and growled in a menacing way ready to attack any time.

Adrianna stepped forward. Suddenly Lenny broke the circle and dashed to the fire and that was enough to trigger Adrianna's response. She dashed at her but Lenny had picked a pan and a stick and started making loud noise. Adrianna looked at her with anger burning in her belly. She jumped in the air to attack Lenny and in one pounce, she pinned Lenny to the ground ready to sink her jaws in Lenny's neck.

Rest of the group started screaming to distract Adrianna. Adrianna got diverted and turned to look at the source of noise. She growled at them and left Lenny to charge at them but just as she prepared to charge them, she saw the red foxes that she had left behind. They had surrounded the group and Adrianna.

They were five of them, lashing their tails behind them as they closed in. Adrianna growled again. In a matter of seconds, she jumped on the one who was right in front of her, and the rest of them jumped on her, biting her legs and her fur. Adrianna whelped in pain as blood started flowing out of various places from her body. Her anger was uncontrollable now. She caught the one in front of her with her jaws and squashed its neck before throwing it far. Then she turned around towards the one who had attacked her hind leg. She caught it in her jaw and it met the same treatment as the first one. Adrianna turned to the other side and kicked the one that had attacked her fur with so much force that it went flying in the air several feet away. Only two remained.