Another flashback scene to when Felicia was an apprentice, struggling hard to learn magic.

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"Light, candle," Felicia murmured to the candle set in the simple iron candleholder resting on the table in front of her. It didn’t. She sang softly, "Light, light, light, light, light!" Her voice rose sharply on the last "light", but the candle, unmoved by her gentle persuasions, remained dark and inert. The vixen frowned impatiently. "Stupid candle! Light, already!" She leaned forward and scowled so fiercely at it that Flagstaff, seated across from her, thought her eyes would pop out and roll down her pointed muzzle. "I said, light!!!" The candle refused. Felicia growled and, closing her eyes tightly, chanted in a sing-song.

"Shrimpi calaln, Ma moforyu tha hoomi
Ma molibil tha kota a takkito mae kelb
Moforyu mae kwas do whuppi u sobbo
Yd morivil mae ungala do da paecur. "

The candle's wick trembled ever so faintly but otherwise ignored the fox's efforts. Felicia huffed and folded her arms across her chest.

"You're trying too hard," the rabbit told her, setting down the large book he had been reading. "You're supposed to ease your mind around the light within you..."

"I am easing!" snapped Felicia irritably. "The candle just won't cooperate!" She half-rose and made a demonstrative flourish with her hands. "Light!" Her fingertips struck the candle in the middle of her sweeping gesture and sent it spinning across the length of the table. She jumped at the table, trying to snatch the candle back before it fell off the edge, but missed. "Gur!" she spat as it struck the floor. "I'll never get the hang of this. I don't know why magic is so hard!"

"It's not hard at all," Flagstaff said. "You just go at it wrong. After all, you can levitate and do a few spells." He watched as Felicia gestured and the candle rose erratically, and then hurled itself against the table with a loud clatter. "Sort of," the rabbit added ironically.

"It should be easier than this," Felicia complained. "It's like working through mud or quicksand. I can see it and I can feel it, but manipulating it is difficult, like running in a dream; you run and run and run, but you move so slowly and don't get more than a foot or two for all your efforts."

"I'm telling you, you're trying too hard," insisted the rabbit. "Here, do it like this." He closed his eyes and pointed a finger at the candle. It immediately ignited and flared like a miniature bonfire, and completely was consumed within a few seconds. Flagstaff gaped at the pool of melted wax in chagrin and said sheepishly, "Oops."

"Show-off," muttered the vixen, who was anything but encouraged. She sighed and slumped against the back of her chair. "Well! I suppose I'm done with my lesson for the day." She sniffed disdainfully at the pool of wax. "You made the mess. You get to clean it."