I thought I would be safe sleeping in a decently sized crevice created between two rocks. I wasn’t safe. I was incredibly wrong. First, I had not properly searched the area around the supposed rocks after I found a nice buggy dinner. A lot of bugs are edible, especially ants. Second, the rocks were actually rock beetles. Not quite the size of Benny, but formidable enough for a tiny witch like me. Third, these two were in the middle of a fight. They had likely fought till they were completely exhausted and passed out. The moment one woke up, they woke the other one, and with just one glance the fighting bell rang. 

It was a rude awakening and a terrifying one. Imagine something that looks like a giant boulder suddenly moving and the only light to help you see was the smallest rays of light peeking through the forest’s many trees.  

Their sudden movement froze me as my sleepy mind tried to keep up with the action. I was barely awake when I was pushed or launched through the forest. I vividly remember rolling straight through a few bushes because the next thing I felt was not the hard bark of a tree but something wet, kind of soft, and a bit furry. I had rolled and hit the top of a wolf’s muzzle. Their eyes snapped open as big as dinner plates. In those eyes, I only saw my own face staring back at me in surprise.  

They stood up to their full height causing me to fall backward on my butt. I felt the pain of landing on the uneven forest floor, but I did not care as I scooted back away from the big gray wolf.  

Rocks and sticks grazed me as I moved until my back hit a tree. I couldn’t move backward anymore. I was stuck. My arms and legs shook like pudding even after shouting in my head to get up. Even though I knew the wolf had to be the same age as me, since adult werewolves are easily ten feet tall and can shift between their three forms, I still felt anxious.  

It wasn’t my first encounter with a werewolf because my parents had many good friends from different races. However, it was my first encounter facing their sharp teeth.  

The wolf approached me growling deep and harshly. My hands on my chest shook too much to manage a spell.  

I think this is the perfect opportunity to talk about how spells are cast with hands. Hand spell casting needs clear hand signals, exact movement of those signals, and a vivid image in the mind’s eye or an incantation. An incantation can either be a word or a whole sentence to a whole essay depending on the difficulty of the spell or mana consumption. Other things require incantations too but, I’ll mention those as I get to them.  

A wand's purpose is to act as a conduit or channel for mana. I like to think of wands as pencils that help draw the intended image more precisely. Using hand spells tends to be more difficult because it requires precision, mana control, and concentration. Each hand signal requires a precise hand sign that must be done correctly for the spell to activate. For example, a gloom spell is cast using either the right or left hand with your pinky and ring finger at a slight angle, the middle finger pointing straight down, the pointer finger pointing forward, and the thumb across the palm. There’s also a slight motion downward as if writing a lowercase g. This is the way I cast gloom because it’s efficient. As a weaver, I have good mana control, if I do say so myself, which improved a lot from training with my maternal grandmother. I have to give credit to her, she’s a tough cookie, and for good reason. I won’t go into detail now because she has her own spot in my tale. The only part I struggle with, and has been my weakness for the longest time, is my own concentration.  

Every time I faced a new problem be it an enemy or a situation that made me panic or made me anxious, I would lose all my mental fortitude. At that time, I was meek and there was no fast pass to suddenly get better. Honestly, I’m still not that brave, but I want to think I earned my badge of courage. How? By facing countless live-or-die scenarios, which happened more often once I entered my second year at Knoles academy. But I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the wolf.  

My hands were shaking too much to cast any spell. My mind wouldn’t focus on much other than to run away, and to make matters worse, they were walking towards me. The only thing that saved me was the half-second the wolf moved their gaze from me to the rock beetle fight taking place to my left.  

NOW! My mind shouted at me as I got on all fours, crawled forward, and got on my feet. I rounded the tree as the wolf leaped forward to catch up to me. In a second, he was on top of me, the small tree had not hindered the wolf at all.  

In my lousy attempt to evade them, I had sidestepped and tripped over either a root or a rock or even my own feet. Still, I couldn’t break an ankle here, so I did my best to twist my body around. As I turned, I got a perfect view of the wolf's teeth and claws. I rolled on the ground from my own momentum and my inefficiency to catch my fall with my hands. A tree stopped my movement with a light tap on my shoulder. Before I could even think of my next move, the wolf, to ensure I wasn’t going anywhere, placed a huge paw on top of me.  

The wolf’s growl became louder, deeper, and deafening as I stared up at those sharp teeth while claws dug into my skin through my clothes.  

I froze again. In that spot, I froze again. Again, again, again. How frustrating... I remember the frustration like it was yesterday. I felt so stupidly useless. Where was all that training, that tough and harsh training with grandfather? Ah, I remember now. What made me snap out of it was picturing my grandfather laughing whenever I made a mistake. It wasn’t mocking but it wasn’t necessarily nice. He needed to prepare me for a world that would not care if it trampled me like a flower in the middle of the road.  

No. I remember thinking. Not, like this. Without even putting up a fight!  

Before an accurate plan could fully form in my brain, I wiggled my right arm from under the wolf’s claw and pulled off my glove.  

I want to take a moment to plead my case because what happened next is quite embarrassing. I'll be honest with myself, most of my strategies are completed on the fly, especially after being startled, or sometimes a better plan comes to mind midway. Stuff happens, and sometimes it's easier to go with the flow. Though sometimes you can’t really think clearly and at sixteen years old, I didn’t have the experience I have now.  

I still feel embarrassed every time I look at the scar left behind by that mistake. But I also can’t help but smile since I gave him, the wolf, a slightly smaller matching one.