[center]
  [i]I don't believe in witches, but that they exist, they exist.[/i]
  [b][i]Miguel de Cervantes[/i][/b] [/center]

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Mammals walked around the storehouse, most of them gathering around the circle drawn on the ground of the old, abandoned place. Percy, the horse; Zane, the tiger; Butch, the wolf with blue and violet painted fur and claws; the hooded figure which species could not be identified, and also another animal that someone would have difficulty to notice at first, a possum.

This possum was female, and she stood on 2'8'' feet tall. The fur of her body was of gray coloration, with a much softer shade, close to white, on her face and down her neck and stomach. Her limbs also had white fur, with black on her hands and feet. Her eyes were of a deep yellow coloration, with the fur on her eyes being of a darker shade of gray. Her tail was long, thick and pinkish, devoid of fur, as it was normal for possums. Her ears were black in the outside and pinkish in the inside. She used some tattered clothing consisting into a purple top, a pair of jeans pants, and a long coat of the same purple coloration. She was standing with the other mammals around the circle.

The other two animals were on the outside of the circle. The dog was sitting on the craters on the corner, apparently tapping into a keyboard that only he was able to see. He seemed like he was completely distracted from the other animals in the places. While the coyote, Hudson Coyle, was on the corner, near the cages. He seemed that he was checking on whatever was inside of them, and they seemed to be feisty, by the way that the cages were shaking.

"So, how do we do this?" Butch asked, looking at the others. "Do we do just like the other nights, or do we change something tonight?"

"Just like other nights, only with the sacrifices." The hooded figure said, "You, Percy and Zane slice their throats while the five of us chant the lines of the ritual. These rituals are very specific." She spoke, looking around. "So, everyone remembers the lines? Boys? Harlie?" She spoke, as the three males and then the female possum, Harlie, nodded back at her. The hooded female then turned to the coyote and the cages.

"Hudson, you doing it fine with them?"

"They are pretty feisty." The coyote said, as he walked from one of the three cages to the next. "But they have no chance. They will be nice and obedient when they are to be sacrificed."

"Why there need to be sacrifices, by the way?" The dog on the craters asked.

"Because this is how Formalcraft works." The tiger said, sounding annoyed, looking at the dog. "In order to be able to take something you need to offer something back, in this case, we offer their lives. Otherwise, we would need to keep chatting all night every night to achieve the same results. Besides, their blood will help the ritual along. You would know that if you were not a Technocrat." The tiger spoke the last line with a certain disdain. The dog glared back at him.

"First of all, I am an [i]ex[/i]-Technocrat. Second, I have helped you guys a lot by locating a source of energy with my methods and also calculated the best possible time that would allow the most of energy to be gathered by your little ritual." The dog said, and he spoke that almost as if he was challenging the tiger to retort, which the big feline seemed to be about to do when the hooded female cut him off.

"Zane, leave Evan alone. He has done his part." She spoke firmly, and the tiger obeyed, remaining silent. "If you are truly frustrated, you can vent killing the sacrifices."

The tiger seemed to be satisfied with this. He, like everyone else, seemed to be oblivious to the fact that there were some mammals spying on them, and that they seemed horrified by what they were hearing.

"Oh my God! Nick!" Judy whispered to the fox, looking from the mammals gathered into the circle to the cages. "They are going to murder someone!"

"I'm glad that we got our hooves in a ritual like that." Percy said, looking around. "I'm still impressed on how Albie was able to get that from [i]them[/i]. The guy surely had talent."

"Yeah, he was good in dealing with others." Harlie, the possum, spoke to the others in there. "It was really smart of him to approach that boy too. It made it very easier to infiltrate in there and steal from their records. Not only he got what he wanted but he also got us some nice spells and rituals."

"Yeah, and they surely got mad at him for that." Zane said, "Maybe he is lucky that he died. Who knows what they would have done to him if they had got him first?"

"He was fun." Evan said, as he continued to tap on his imaginary keyboard. "I'll miss him."

"We all might meet up with him if we are not careful enough." Zane said to them. "After all, once they learn that he was associated to us, they will want to take it out on us, since he is not around anymore."

"That is why we must be quick and careful." The hooded female said at all of them. "This is the last night that we are doing this, and if we do it right we won't need to take any more risks." She spoke as she walked to the center of the circle, reaching out for something inside of her clothes.

Nick and Judy looked at it, as the female of unidentified species pulled out… a crystal.

It was shaped like a perfect miniature pyramid made of some unknown crystal. It was of a pinkish coloration, the figure placed it into the precise center of the circle before walking back to where she was previously standing, and she turned to the dog.

"Evan, how long now?"

"Two minutes and twenty five seconds." The dog said.

"Are you sure?" Percy asked him.

"99.92%." The dog confirmed.

"Still hard to believe that this building is right above a Ley Line." Harlie commented. "I thought that places like that tended to attract success and good fortune."

"That is not an absolute rule." Zane said to the possum. "Zootopia has a few Ley Lines passing by it, and not every place that is above one attracts success."

"Let's focus." The hooded animal said, clapping her paws. "Hudson, I hope the sacrifices are ready! Bring them on now!"

"Yes, boss!" The coyote said, and started to unlock the small cages, opening them one by one. "Okay, guys, get out now, it is time to be part of a ritual." He said, gesturing to whoever was inside to come out.

Nick and Judy looked anxious, fully expecting mammals to crawl out of the cages looking scared or even drugged. Instead, they saw something very different crawling out of the cages and remaining on all fours.

The creatures had bodies covered in scales instead of fur, and they were massive. Their long maws, filled with sharp teeth, were so big that they would probably be able to chomp Judy down in a single bite. Their four stubby legs dragged their big bodies out of the cages, as they long and massive tails followed right behind.

The three crocodiles looked quite intimidating.

Once more, it is worth to remember that, for some reason, only mammals evolved to have sentience, while other classes of animals remained feral. Reptiles were included in that, from the smaller geckos that somehow invaded houses and became a plague, to the bigger carnivore reptiles, like the crocodiles that had just crawled out of the cages.

"Crocodiles?" Nick whispered, somewhat surprised, and somewhat scared. "They are going to sacrifice crocodiles?" Now, Nick would be lying if he said that he wasn't somewhat relieved for knowing that guys are going to kill reptiles instead of mammals. It still constituted cruelty to beasts, but at least they were not going to be murdering mammals.

Now, it left the question of where the crocodiles have come from. The pets that were allow into Zootopia were limited to small species that represented no danger to other mammals, like iguanas, canaries, chameleons, and even some kinds of insect. The bigger ones were kept for leather and meat, and they were, when much, kept into special sanctuaries where they were fed and protected. Crocodiles in particular were beasts taken with particular care, for they were carnivore and ate mammals, and they couldn't be trained or domesticated.

However, the way that the crocodiles were behaving seemed to go against this common knowledge. The creatures dragged themselves as they followed the yote's gestures. It was almost as if they were trained pets following their trainer's commands. They moved around the circle, until they were standing on three distinct points, each one by the side of one of the mammals who was in charged of sacrificing them.

"Nick, we have to do something." Judy said, but the fox was the one who held her back.

"Carrots, let's wait for the backup." He insisted, and the mammals inside were still oblivious to the animals spying on them. As the horse, wolf and tiger all pulled out daggers from their waists.

"Be ready, everyone." The hooded female said. Meanwhile, Evan continued on the corner:

"Ten seconds now… nine… eight…"

"We gotta do something, Nick!"

"Stay low, stay low and wait for back up!" The fox whispered urgently at her.

"…Three… Two… One… Now!"

On cue, the three animals with the daggers moved on the crocodiles, who had remained perfectly still all the time, and passed the daggers through their necks, slicing through their scaly skin.

The beasts remained perfectly still as the wounds were opened and blood gushed out. Judy let out a soft gasp as she looked away, covering her eyes. The sight of blood was not something she liked. Nick was also a bit shocked, but he could deal with it better.

As the three crocodiles were sacrificed, the five animals around the circle started to chat something. The two had to admit, it did sounded a lot like something that you would expect to hear into some old ritual, like in the movies or series. It was rather ominous.

For a while, the two watched as the mammals gathered into that circle remained in there, chatting that strange thing that almost sounded like an old and creepy music into a foreign language. The three crocodiles laid dead in there, their blood flowing from underneath them and pooling in the corners of the circle, which had a triangle inside. Each crocodile was kill on a corner of the triangle, and now the blood of the beasts pooled in there.

"So… that is it?" Nick said, as he continued to look at the mammals chatting on the circle, with the dead crocodiles around it. "Well, that is kind of a letdown… I kind of expected-"

Nick did not said what he expected, for in that moment, the lines of the circle started to glow. It was if the circle was a big circuit, and the lines lighted up, glowing. The glow was of a bluish-white coloration, and it illuminated the storehouse. They glowed so much that the light could be see even through the blood that had pooled on the corners of the circle, and it was even outshining the lights that were previously illuminating the storehouse, coming from the lamps of the place.

The light was intense, and it could be clearly see through the old windows and the many openings that had in the worm-out walls and ceiling. Nick and Judy even had to slightly protect their eyes due to the luminosity, which didn't not came only from the lines of the circle, but from the very center of the circle itself, as if that area suddenly was becoming illuminated.

"Okay, scratch that." Nick said, shielding his eyes, as he had to let them adjust to the sudden illumination that was coming from the inside. As they did, both he and Judy looked into the storehouse, looking at the mammals, who still chanted whatever it was. The five mammals gathered around the circle had their paws raised – the horse, tiger and wolf still holding into their daggers – apparently focusing into the ritual. The dog was still sitting on the craters, looking at the other mammals performed the ritual, while Hudson Coyle was standing on a corner, looking quite edgy as he saw it, as if it was something very important.

Now, if Nick and Judy had any doubt that these animals could be mages, all of these doubts seemed to evaporate as they saw what was happening in front of them.

"Nick, are you seeing this too?" Judy asked in a whisper.

""Is it just me, or is the blood of the crocodiles starting to glow as well?" The fox whispered back, as they both looked into the ritual that was developing in front of them.

As they looked, Judy's very sensitive ears were able to pick up a sound. Something that was above the chanting of the animals on the inside, and the suspicious sound that was coming inside, as if made by wind. She turned her head to look, and she saw someone coming. Her eyes widened, and she tapped Nick's shoulder, calling his attention to whatever it was.

Approaching them, with a dart gun in his hooves, was no other than Chief Bogo. The Cape buffalo was walking with care, as it was common in a situation like this. He was a bit surprised to see a place that had some kind of light coming from inside and a strange sound of voices. Almost as much surprised as he was for seeing Wilde and Hopps holding on to vines into the wall, apparently to look into the window.

"Hopps! Wilde!" The buffalo whispered to them as he approached. "What are you two doing?"

"What are you doing here, Chief?" Nick asked. Of course, they had asked for reinforcement, but they had not expected the chief to come there himself.

Bogo explained to them that the meeting that he had with the animals of the City Hall had taken far longer than he expected, and he only finished around fifteen minutes ago. He was taking a route that would lead him back to the station when he heard from the radio that the two officers had a situation in which they were requesting support. The other officers were either still busy with their assignments or very distant to be able to come, and Clawhauser had made it clear that it seemed to be quite urgent what was happening. So, since Bogo was passing very close to them by his route, he decided to go in there to offer his support.

"What is this?" He asked as soon as he finished his brief explanation. "What is going on here?"

The two animals shared a look. For a moment, it was as if they were debating if they should or should not tell the buffalo. Bogo had a raised eyebrow at them, when it seemed that they had agreed to tell him, in very brief words, what was going on. They told him about how they recognized the mammals on the street, how they followed them, and how they started doing their ritual.

On the "ritual" part, the chief's stance shifted. He looked annoyed, and angry.

"Are you two telling me that you two sent an urgent call to the police line because of some mammals doing some kind of ritual?" The chief of Precinct 1 said to the two in a low voice. The two were already seeing the kind of talking down that would come. However, they didn't had time to that.

"They are doing the ritual right now." Nick said to him. "It is some crazy stuff. And it's getting crazier…" Nick said as he continued to look inside.

The buffalo snorted.

"From all of the stupid things that could be reason for a call…"

"It is not stupid." Judy whispered to him. "If you look inside…"

"I just had a very long meeting and I wanted nothing more than to go back to the station for some rest and maybe a meal, and I'm made to come here because of a ritual…" The chief said, and his voice was now gaining volume. This worried Judy.

"Chief, if you listen…"

"I did not expected you, of all mammals, to hear to these stupid things, Hopps." He said, looking at the bunny. "I really thought that you were mature and reasonable, and now you come here, calling me for-"

The buffalo's voice was becoming louder, and Judy was scared that this would call attention from the inside, if the buffalo's voice would become louder than the chanting.

"[i]Will you shut up!?[/i]" Judy said in a low voice, but with an incisiveness that made the buffalo stop and look at her. At first, he looked shocked, but then, it morphed to fury.

"Look inside!" Judy said incisively, pointing at the window. Bogo rose a hooved finger, and he seemed about to say something to the bunny. However, as they locked eyes, the buffalo simply snorted, and approached the window that the two animals were looking at.

The bunny and fox needed to climb the boxes and the vines so they could look at the window, for it was tall for them. However, the buffalo, who was much bigger, could easily reach for the window, as it was right on his eye level. It allowed him to simply stand in there and look through the dirty and broken window to what was going on inside.

What he saw as a scenery worth of a fantasy series. With mammals standing around a circle chanting something in a strange language, dead crocodiles around the circle – which was glowing in blue – and the air around the place seeming to move and become heavier.

"What the horns?" Bogo said as he saw what was going on inside, just in the moment when the blood of the dead crocodiles started to glow.

It had been growing in glow for a few moments now, and now it was definitely glowing in a scarlet coloration, and not only that, but it started moving. The chanting of the mammals around the circle got more intense, as the blood of the crocodiles moved across the lines of the triangle inside of the circle, delimiting correctly the geometrical figure, still glowing crimson, quite intensely, it was to be added.

"Does it looks like nonsense to you?" Judy whispered to the buffalo, who continued to look at the surreal spectacle that was developing in front of his very eyes.

"I-I-I…" Bogo said, as if he was trying to find his voice once more, as he saw the glowing blood dancing on its own. "I-I admit that it is really strange… B-but there must be some explanation for this." He said as he looked at what was going on, and it seemed that the ritual was coming into a crucial part.

The five mammals around the circle rose their paws/hooves up, and they were now chanting louder and with more enthusiasm, and as if on cue, the blood started to move again. The blood that had accumulated into the lines of the triangle, now started to converge to the center of the circle, looking like water being drained from a pool, as it spiraled in direction to the central point of that circle, in which sat the pinkish crystal pyramid.

Said pyramid was also glowing, first with a pink hue, but as the blood converged into it, the glow of the pyramid was changing, as it became darker, sharper, and more intense. The whole process too around five minutes, as all of the blood had converge into the pyramid, disappearing from sight, while the pyramid now glowed like a small crimson star in the center of the circle.

Then, the chanting started to diminish, as the mammals slowly lowered their paws. After two more minutes, they had finished, and the light gradually diminished, until the circle had gone off, and the light that illuminated the storehouse was once more the one coming from the lamps.

No one moved or said anything for yet another minute. The mammals that were around the circle stayed where they were, and the mammals who were watching from the window seemed like they were holding their breath. The dead crocodiles were still right where they fell, with their throats slit, but not a single drop of their blood was anywhere in sight.

Then, the hooded figure walked to the center of the circle, crouching and reaching out to reach for the crystal pyramid, which now was of a deep scarlet coloration. Picking it up and raising it, as it to look at it better into the light, the figure pulled the hood of her cloak, finally allowing others to see her face.

She had a canine-like muzzle, with dull gray fur all over her head. Her ears were big and round, with white fur on their inside, and they had some earrings on them. She had a mane that was of a white coloration. The hyena looked intently at the crystal pyramid with her moss-green eyes, and a smirk formed in her muzzle.

"Congratulations, Vipers." She said aloud, looking around, showing the now red crystal to the others as if it was some kind of trophy. "We have made it."

The mammals inside of the storehouse celebrated. Butch howled loudly, followed by Coyle, who was going along. Harlie said a "score!" as she pumped her fist. Percy clapped his hooved hands at this, while Zane was next to him with is arms crossed, but a satisfied expression. And Evan, outside of the thing, gave the guys a thumbs up.

"That is great!" Coyle said, putting an arm around Butch, who put an arm around him in return. "This calls for a celebration! I know a place who has the best bugloaf in the city!"

"So, this means we are finished, right boss?" Percy said, approaching the hyena, who was considerably shorter than him, and the female smiled back at him.

"Oh, we sure did." She said, still holding up the crimson pyramid, looking at it as if it was a priceless treasure. "With this, we will surely be able to do a lot of things. Now Sinclaw and his Orphans will regret having looked down on us."

"They better do." Zane said, approaching them as well.

"Yeah, we all don't like Sinclaw and his little group." Percy said, "But we have to remember that until very recently we were all…" The horse was saying, but stopped, his ears twitching. The horse immediately looked up. He was not the only one, as Judy, on the outside, also had looked up, nearly at the same time, as her big ears got a sound.

"Did you hear this?" She whispered to the other two. The animals barely had time to answer, as another sound came from up. It was coming from the roof of the storehouse, and it made all animals, inside and outside, to look up.

Of course, that was the only thing they had time to do before the roof broke and something fell from there.

The animals in the storehouse immediately jumped and seemed ready to action. Coyle yipped and nearly tripped on his own tail as he backed away. The animals in the outside were surprised as well, as Bogo nearly shouted out a curse and Nick let out one in a whisper.

Falling out of the roof came three mammals, and they now were hanging into vines, hoovering a few feet above the ground.

For a while, no one said a thing, save for the animals who were hanging. Most of it was hard to understand, for they were talking to each other, and mostly shocked for what had happened. However, it was possible to make up a few things.

"Frizzle Frazzle!"

"Oh, gawd! I almost dropped my dad's camera!"

"Shawn! I told you to be careful, you Muttonhead!"

"It was not my fault!"

The cacophony of the three mammals lasted for a few more moments, before they seemingly remembered that they were not alone in there. The mammals of the storehouse now looked at the three newcomers, starting with the one who was on the left (facing them). This one was a hyena, and he had fur of reddish brown coloration on his body, with a softer shade on his muzzle and face. It was hard to see his eyes, because he had a mane of cream coloration that was big and flopped over his face. He had black spots on his body, as it was common for a spotted hyena, and he had paws and feet of black coloration. His muzzle was also of a black coloration, and he had a golden nose-ring piercing on his snout. He was wearing common clothes, with crisscrossed shirt and jeans short. He was almost laying in the air, as the vines made him be suspended in the air in a "Mission Inpawsible" style. He was holding a camera on his paw, and it looked like it was still recording.

To his left, there was a pig. He had pink skin, but his head and face had splashes of brown in it, a feature that some pigs did had sometimes. He had big and floppy ears, and he had a tuff of yellow fur on the top of his head. He was wearing white shirt with a logo in it, jeans pants, and a stylish red jacket. His eyes were of a dark-brown coloration, and they looked at the other animals a bit widen. The pig was hanging from the vines in a way that it almost made it look like he was sitting in some invisible chair. He did looked more comfortable than the one that was on his left.

The sheep was pretty much what most would expect from a sheep: white with wool that was just as white. He was rather slim, letting it clear that he was not the athletic type. He wore a pair of glasses on his amber eyes. He was wearing a pair of loose khaki pants and a blue pullover that had a cartoonish sheep in it with the sayings: "[b]VERY SOFT BOY[/b]". Of course, as far as it was possible to say, once the sheep was currently upside down, hanging from the vines that had tied around his waist and legs. Somehow, his glasses still managed to remain on his face, although they were hanging precariously.

The most striking thing about all of the three mammals, however, was the fact that they all were (or at least looked like) teenagers. From the hyena with the hair that flopped over his eyes to the skinny and geek-looking sheep. Not to mention the pig, who seemed to be the shorter of them, being quite small, even for a teenage pig.

They just hanged in there, looking at the mammals into the storehouse, who were now looking at them. They also haven't noticed the mammals who were outside of the storehouse, looking through the window.

"What the heck?" Bogo said in a whisper as he watched in shock, along with the two officers. Nick, however, had a cocked eyebrow as he took a good look at these three teenagers.


  [i]Wait, I have seen them before… No. Could it be..?[/i]


"What's going on here?" Said Coyle, as he and his pals now were surrounding the three animals who had literally fell through their ceiling. These three looked like they had been caught in the act, and they kind of looked like the traditional teenagers who are trying to come up with an excuse.

"Hmmm, hi?" The sheep said, waving to them. The mammals looked mostly unimpressed.

"Sully?" The hyena said, and the pig seemed to know that it was with him. However, he did looked like he was lost, and trying to come up with something.

"Uuuuuh…" He said, before beaming in a smile. "Wow! That was crazy, wasn't it?" He said, seemingly to his two buddies. "Dudes! That bungee jumping with vines thing really is awesome! We should try it more times!" He said, and his two friends look at him. "Oh, it seems that we have crashed on someone's party, sorry about that." He spoke, now addressing the mammals how had been in the storehouse. "So, we don't want to interrupt, so, if you guys can get us loose we can be on our way. Oh, sorry for the ceiling, by the way."

The pig finished with his best smile, however, this smile soon disappeared when he saw the expressions of the mammals around them, seeing that they were clearly not buying it.

The female hyena, still with her cloak, produced a dagger from inside of it, and pointed it at the three animals, making them all react. The hyena boy yipped, the pig snorted, and the sheep bleated.

"Who are you?" She asked him in a very calm voice. "And don't you even think of lying"

There was a brief silence, as the pig looked at his two companions, who looked back at him. He sighed, and said:

"O-okay. I am Sullivan, but my friends call me Sully. These are Patrick and Shawn." He said as he pointed to the hyena and sheep respectively, both giving very brief greetings. "We are all friends, and we make videos for the internet."

As he spoke, the mammals around them turned their eyes back at the hyena boy, who was still holding his camera.

The hyena boy, noticing all eyes on him, was trying to conceal the camera, but with no success, due to the position he was in.

"What kind of videos?" The female hyena asked, still pointing the dagger to the pig. "Sully" gulped as he saw that sharp object pointed at him.

"Z-Zootube videos… You know, the kind that gather followers." He said, but the cloaked female seemed not to be satisfied.

"What kind of videos?" She asked once more, slower this time, and she seemed like she was getting angrier. This granted the pig to look even more nervous, as he was starting to sweat.

"Ah!" Evan said, snapping his fingers, granting all eyes in the room to turn to him. "Now I remember where I know you from!" He said, and completed: "You guys are the Mage Chasers!"

"Mage… Chasers?" Zane said, looking at the dog and back at the three hanging teenagers with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, there are some videos of them on Zootube!" The dog said. "The guys go around the city of Zootopia seeing if they can find mages and catch them on video." He explained to the others, who were now looking at the three invaders. "I keep following them."

"Oh, right!" The pig said, suddenly looking like he was quite prideful of himself. "Sure you do, because our tenacity and determination into finding the truth is inspiring and worth of admiration, right?"

"Nope." The dog said. "Because it is hilarious the kind of troubles you all get when you are trying to find clues about mages! Seriously, I crack myself up from laughing."

The pig visibly deflated from this.

"So, they basically go around with a camera hoping to expose us even further?" Coyle said, and the sheep was who answered:

"We just want to understand you mages better."

"We don't want you to understand us!" The tiger shot back, making the sheep bleat a little. "And, you give me this!" He said as he snatched the camera from the hyena's paws.

"Hey!" Patrick said, "Be careful with that! My dad will kill me if something happens to that camera!"

The tiger was now handling the camera, but it seemed that he didn't quite knew how to handle it, because he kept turning it around, trying to open it, and pressing button after button. This was making the hyena boy anxious, as he kept insisting for the tiger to "be careful".

"Oh, lord have mercy, give me that." Evan said, taking the camera from Zane's paws. He knew how to handle the camera, as he handled it with the needed care, and knew how to operate it, as he soon was seeing what they had recorded in it.

"Look at that! They recorded the entire ritual!" He said, seemingly amused. "And they got some nice shots. You were recording from the ceiling?"

"Yeah, there is – I mean, there [i]was[/i] a hole in the ceiling from above, and we were able to get some images by filming through the hole." Patrick said.

"Yeah, before Shawn misstepped and sent us all crashing down." Sully said, looking at the sheep on his left.

"Hey! It was not my fault! The ceiling was old and breaking!"

"I liked how you gave a zoom from the moment the blood converged into the crystal." The dog said, looking at Patrick. "Very high resolution. This is a nice camera."

"Thanks." The hyena said back at him. "It is top line, with sixteen megapixels and digital zoom. It even has an automatic focus and brightness adjust…"

"Nevermind the stupid camera!" Zane said, getting some attention. He looked now very intently at the three intruders. "How did you three found this place?"

The three were really scared of the big mammal who seemed to be quite mad at them.

"I-it was Patrick." Sully said, making the hyena immediately turn to look at him. "H-he said he had found some mages and that we needed to record them for our Zootube channel."

"Wha- You liar!" The hyena said immediately. "It was [i]you[/i] who said that! I just told you what I had saw!"

"And what did you saw, Patrick?" The female hyena turned to him, now pointing her dagger at him, and it was close enough that it was almost touching his nose. The younger hyena gulped as he looked at the intimidating female, and he stuttered as he explained.

"W-well, you see, I was doing parkour around Rainforest District. It is a hobby of mine, and the Rainforest is really great for it because of all of the trees, branches and vines and all of that stuff…"

"Get to the point." She said, her tone was neutral, but she was pressing the dagger a bit closer to his face. The boy yipped and he went on.

"I-I was doing parkour and I ended up on top of this same storehouse. It was yesterday, I thought it was abandoned when I heard voices and noticed that there was something going on inside!" He was almost trampling his words as he explained. Fear was a very good stimulant to some mammals. "There were some holes on the ceiling, and I peeked through one of them, and I saw you guys doing something in here yesterday. Some kind of ritual, with the same circle."

The mammals around them shared looks, and the hyena continued to look at him.

"Go on." She said calmly, and the hyena boy got a bit calmer, but continued to explain to her.

"I saw you guys doing pretty much the same thing that you just did, only without the crocodiles, where did you get them, anyway?" He asked, but he shut up when the dagger came a bit closer, the cold tip of it touching his snout. He decided to continue his explanations, as not to have the dagger even closer to his body.

"Well, I saw the ritual to the end, and when you were leaving, I heard you talking to the others, telling them to remember that the ritual would be finished in the next evening. This meant today." He continued. "As soon as I got back home, I called Sully and Shawn and told them what I saw in here. They didn't believed at first, but when I explained everything to them, Sully said that this was exactly what we have been looking for, and that if you guys were coming back to do that again, we had to come back and capture it on camera for our channel."

There was a brief silence, and the hyena female once more turned her eyes and dagger to the pig, who now looked caught.

"So, you are the mastermind behind this, aren't you?" She asked him in a very sweet tone, but that caused the pig to feel even more scared of her.

"I-I was just… Y-you see… uhhh…" The pig said, trying to find words that would put him out of that situation. At some point, however, he had just decided to take a deep breath and try to say something the best he could:

"You see… the world has been too chaotic ever since you guys came around." The pig said, and the hyena raised an eyebrow at him.

"I mean… everybody is on the edge because of all that is going on." The pig said, choosing better his words, as not the get the mammal with a knife angry. "They don't know what is going on, and they are taking conclusions on what was happening, both good and bad." He spoke solemnly, and it was as if he had memorized some speech.

"What we – the Mage Chasers – aim to, is finding mages and try to get answers. We try to understand better these individuals who hold magic as part of their lives, and try to pass this understanding to other individuals, to ease their minds and to help them determine on their own if the individuals are dangerous or not. We determine if they are individuals who have their own society and their own rules, or if they are cruel and heartless beings who kill innocents in rituals." The pig said, and he looked at the dead crocodiles that were in the room. "Well, we already confirmed that you guys kill reptiles."

The hyena looked at him with complete indifference, and Sully continued to look at her. He swallowed another lump on his throat, wondering if he was able to convince her. After a few moments, he almost sighed in relief when she lowered the dagger. She was now smiling at the pig, as well as to his two friends.

"So… you just want to learn more about us, don't you?"

"Y-yeah, kind of." The pig said to her, glad that she at least didn't seemed ready to kill him anymore, and his two friends backed him up.

"Y-yeah, I actually kind of like mages." Shawn said. "When we play Beasts &amp; Battlefields, I am always a wizard. I know the spell lists like the back of my hoof." He said rather proudly, like a good geek.

"Well, I'm not sure about all that stuff…" Patrick admitted. "I just accepted because I was curious and because I thought it would be fun. I didn't wanted anyone to get mad." He admitted, making it clear that he didn't wanted to cause problems. "So, if you guys don't want to be on internet we can just erase the video."

"No way!" Sully immediately said. "We worked hard for that video!"

"Dude! Don't get the mages angry! They don't want to be on video! Let's respect their wishes!"

"This video is what we need!" The pig said to the hyena boy. "It is the first thing we have since we started two months ago! If we post it we will surely become legends!" He said to his friend, who seemed like he still wasn't convinced. He then turned to the mages that were still surrounding them.

"Guys, I know that you don't really like being exposed, but I think another video would make no difference at this point. So, if you return the camera and get us down form here, we can go on our way. Maybe even better, now that you guys know we are here you could give you an interview on two! Come on, don't you want to be famous?"

The tiger growled at him, making the pig squeak.

"W-well, maybe you could at least explain what you were doing here." He said, "I mean, just so we don't leave here thinking that you guys kill animals in rituals to have more luck on days or win on the lottery."

The tiger was about to growl once more, but the female hyena silenced him with a gesture. She looked at the pig, and she spoke, in a sweet tone:

"So, you want to know what happened here?" She asked, and the pig shared looks with his two friends, before the three of them nodded.

"Very well." She said, as she looked at the three, and then, she started to explain.

"In order to perform spells, mages like us need to use [b]magical energy[/b]. It is something that we must use if we want to perform our spells, kind of like… the fuel that makes a motor work."

The animals all looked with interest. The three seemed that they had became really interested, while the animals around had a different expression…

"So, a mage can only perform spells if they have magical energy to use. Of course, sometimes, the mage don't have enough energy on their own, so they need to resort to another options." She explained to them. "There are rituals, like the one you just saw, that allow taking energy from the environment, converting it into magical energy for us to use. They are call [b]Formalcraft[/b]. Mages will often use this type of ritual to gather magical energy that they cannot produce on their own. This is what we just did."

"By killing some beasts, like chicken and crocodiles, we are able to make the World gives us some of its energy, by offering these creatures' blood and lives as a 'payment'." She spoke to the younger mammals as if she was giving them a lecture. "It is also possible to do it without the sacrifices, but it would require long hours of chanting and meditation, and I think it is safe to say that few of the mammals of our little group have the patient for that."

She looked around, and some looked away, seeming rather embarrassed. She continued:

"However, if we are gathering too much power, it might be too much for our bodies to handle. So, it is only good when we are performing on specific spell at a moment. Otherwise, we need to store it somewhere." She said, and pulled out of her cloak the little pyramid of now-red crystal. "Like we did with this."

The three looked with interest at the small crystal.

"This is a crystal that has been specially prepared to hold magical energy. Gemstones and crystals have great capacity to hold them, you know? So, by using this crystal, and this special ritual that we have been performing for several nights in the past weeks, right above a Ley Line, we managed to force a great amount of magical energy to gather inside this crystal. Now, it is a battery of magical energy that we can use at any time to power up spells, allowing us to do things that normally would be beyond our reach."

She looked at the crystal with a lot of interest herself. She had a smile in her muzzle.

"With how much energy we forced into this, it could probably do a lot of things."

A silence followed these words, as the three mammals took in all they they had just heard.

"That is… rather cool." Patrick said.

"Yeah, it surely explains what you were doing… Wait, you don't do these rituals using mammals, do you?" Shawn asked.

"Nah. Not in the last three hundred years." She said to them. "It is against our laws."

"Oh, so you [i]do[/i] have laws!" Sully said, excited. "This is really cool! You could talk about them on the camera, after you have repeated what you just said."

"I'm sorry, 'for the camera'?" She asked, her tone still sweet.

"Yeah, of course!" The pig said, "You are going to let us go and post the video, no? That is why you told us this, right? So we could explain to people so they don't think the wrong thing?"

She looked at him, and smiled in a way that sent shivers down his spine.

"Oh, sweetheart!" She said with the same sweet tone. "The only reason why I am telling you this, is because you won't be able to tell anyone."

The words she spoke sent shivers to the three hanging mammals.

"W-wha…?"

"So, I guess this sums it up." Coyle said, already rubbing his paws. "Three memory-wiped mammals coming right up!"

He seemed about to do something, when the hyena stopped him with a gesture of her hand. "Before we do anything." She said, making it clear that she still hasn't gave her final saying. "We need to ask a few more questions to our unexpected guests."

She looked intently at the three animals.

"W-what questions?" Sully asked, now feeling genuinely scared.

"Like, if you told about this to anyone. If anyone knows where you three went tonight or what you were going to do. Or if your friend would, by any chance, caught us on video when he stumbled on us yesterday."

"I-I didn't!" Patrick was quick to say. "I was practicing parkour and I was without any camera! I didn't even had my cellphone on me! My mom gave me an ear chewing for being without it!"

"I haven't told anyone!" Shawn spoke, "My parents think I went to the library to study!"

"Oh, really?" The hyena said, and the tiger was quick to speak:

"They are lying!"

"No, we are not!" Shawn said to them, now looking quite frantic. "We are saying the truth, honest!"

"We won't tell anyone what we saw! We will erase the video and pretend this never happened!" Patrick said once more, now fighting the bonds. The female hyena gave her back to them as she walked.

"We can't just let you all go, you know…" She spoke, now in a dark tone.

"W-wait!" Sully said, now very scared himself. "W-we can talk it over! M-maybe we could change the video so no one will see your faces! No one will know you guys are mages!"

"The ritual we performed tonight…" She said, "We did it for a reason, and in order to be able to do it, we actually had to break a few of our laws." She turned back to the three mammals. All the sweetness was gone from her features, as she looked back at them. "It is not only the trouble of being exposed, but also the problems of others finding out what we did, and if that happens… well, let's just say it won't be good to us in the slightest."

She looked very intently at the three, "That is why we can't take any chances… Butch."

"Yeah, boss?" The wolf said, and she spoke to him.

"Tonight we will have a little fun. Start with the sheep. Give him a good shearing."

"S-Shearing!?" Shawn bleated.

The wolf smirked. "How close?"

"As close as you want."

The wolf smirked as he once more pulled out his dagger, and started to approach the sheep the way a predator approaches the prey.

"N-no! Wait! Please!" The sheep pleaded, but it looked like it was all falling into deaf ears.

"Don't worry, I'll shear you nice and close." The wolf said, "But, I never sheared a sheep before, especially with a dagger. I might cut you a little bit, but I think you can handle a little blood loss."

"N-no!" The sheep bleated once more, now flailing about, like a fish in a hook. "Don't do this! You can't! Help!"

"Look, if you squirm it will get harder to make a clear shear." The wolf said with a smirk. "So, if you stay still I'll just- GAH!" The wolf suddenly cried out as he felt a sting in the back of his neck, causing him to take his free paw there, where he quickly grabbed something.

The other animals in there saw as the wolf stopped and reached out for the back of his neck, pulling out a dart.

The wolf looked at it himself, blinking.

"Is this… ohhhhhhhh."

Was all that Butch had the time to say, before he slumped to the ground, knocked out cold.

"We are being attacked!" Coyle suddenly said, reaching out for inside his clothes and pulling out a long strand of red rope. He looked around the storehouse, trying to figure out from where the attack had come from. The other animals were not as edgy as he was, but they too were on alert, especially since they now could pick up rushed sounds coming from the outside.

The three cops had remained in the window all the time, and Judy had finally had enough when she saw they planned to hurt the teenagers. She pulled her dart gun and darted the wolf through the window. Immediately after, the three animals, in a silent agreement, moved out of the window and in direction to the door of the storehouse.

Enough of just watching, it was time to do something.

Bogo used his sheer size and strength to slam into the door, nearly ripping it out of the ridges as he opened space.

"ZPD! Don't move!" The buffalo said, pointing his gun at the mammals in there, making them all turn to look at him, and at the two mammals that came right up.

"Drop your weapons!" Judy cried out as she also came in with her dart gun ready, Nick coming right after.

"ZPD?" The hyena asked.

"Wha-?" Coyle said.

"What are you…" Zane started asking, but in the moment he saw Nick… "RUSSET!"

"Hey there." Nick said, point his dart gun at the tiger. "We gotta stop meeting like that."

"Help! Help!" Shawn cried out form where he was hanging, wanting the ZPD to hurry up and come to rescue him and his friends already. Meanwhile, the other animals around looked at the three newcomers.

"Well, if it isn't the small officers!" Percy said as he saw the two small mammals in police uniform. "How fancy it is to meet both of you in here." He said, greeting them warmly. "Also, a little bit inconvenient…"

"Zane, Percy." The hyena said. "Do you know these mammals?"

"They are police officers." Percy said, "Evan, Butch and I had a run in at them a few months ago. I remember, because it was when I scared that old lady." He said, showing that he had a good memory, and that he found the memory a slightly fun one. "And, you, Zane, where do you know them from?"

"I know the fox." The tiger said in a growl. "It is some spellcaster that goes around pretending to be from the Wilde clan."

"Uh! That's serious." Percy said, looking at the fox "You got some balls to do that."

"Okay, we can go in a debate if I am 'Wilde' or not. But right now you guys better drop any weapons you get, lay down on the floor, and put your paws in your heads. Unless you want to be darted."

"Should we be worried, Zane?" The hyena asked, and the tiger growled once more.

"Not massively, but keep your eyes open for… that!" He said, suddenly pointing to above, and this caused all animals to look up.

A blue butterfly was fluttering just above them.

[i]Oh, boy.[/i] Was the thought on Nick's mind.

"What's that?" Asked the possum, and as if on cue, the butterfly started to glow as if flapped this wings. Soon, where there was one butterfly, now there were two. And then four. And then eight.

"Wha..?" Bogo said as he saw the glowing butterfly multiplying in front of his very eyes.

"Oh, boy…" Percy said, and the butterfly continued to multiply. Suddenly, the butterflies glowed, shot across the air faster than any butterfly was supposed to move.

The six remaining mages immediately had to jump out of the way of the butterflies, which looked more like streams of light as they moved at great speed across the air. Percy was able to jump out of the way, and Zane was just barely able to avoid it, as the butterflies cut through his shirt and produced gashes on his skin, making him roar as he went to the ground.

The other mammals in the room were completely immobilize, looking at the surreal scene that was developing in front of them.

"Help!" The call for help from one of the teenagers broke the three officers out of their stupor, causing them to immediately rush to the help of the three. It was easy, once the butterflies seemed not to be targeting them, instead, focusing their attention at the mages.

"Hey!" Zane said, but he didn't had time to do anything about the other ones, for immediately, a butterfly dashed near his face, opening a wound on his cheek and forcing him to dodge out of the way to avoid more attacks.

"Help us!" Patrick said as he squirmed in his vines, just like the others. Judy was the first to get to them.

"Don't worry, we will get you all out of here." She said to them, as she and Nick both started working into freeing the animals from the vines. Meanwhile, Bogo spent a moment to look once more into the mess that was going on around him.

The animals who had just performed a very strange ritual were now being attack by a flock of murderous butterflies that moved just like streaks of light.

It was strange.

It was surreal.

It was illogical.

It was impossible.

However, it was happening.

Bogo decided that he could have a crisis over this later on, now it was time to call for back up.

Reaching for his radio, Bogo was quick to contact the central.

"Clawhauser! Clawhauser, you are there?" Bogo called, and the answer soon came.

"[i]Chief! Chief, it is you?[/i]"

"Yes, it's me! I need you to send back up!" The buffalo said, not noticing that one of the animals who was being attacked now had time to look at the buffalo trying to call for backup.

"Oh, no you won't!" Evan said, one of his eyes changing color, adopting a neon-blue coloration, as the dog soon was tapping in the air once more. However, this time his fingers produced an effect in the air, as if he was really tipping commands into some keyboard.

"I don't care if they are busy, I want you to…" Bogo said, but was cut off in the moment his radio buzzed like mad, before it went completely silent. "Clawhauser? Clawhauser, you there!? The radio just died!" He said to his two officers.

Nick looked at him, and tried to call himself for back up. However, his radio looked like it was dead as well.

Meanwhile, Judy was still trying to get these teenagers down from the vines.

"Come on." Judy grunted. "Come on, you stupid…" She pulled and pulled, but it seemed like it was not working. She was about to try something else, when one of the butterflies suddenly dashed right above the teenagers, slashing through the vines. Soon, the three fell into the ground one by one. Patrick fell flat on his chest. Sully landed on his butt, and he was soon rubbing it. Shawn, on his end, landed face first in the ground, miraculously not breaking his glasses.

Judy blinked, and looked at the butterfly, which was fluttering in place. "Uhhh, thanks?" She said, and the butterfly immediately started to dash across the air again.

"Let's get out of here!" Sully was the first to get up, and he seemed ready to run.

"Wait! My dad's camera!" Patrick said, looking around and sighting the camera, which had been lost during the confusion with the butterflies. "He will kill me if I lose it! There it is!" He said, suddenly catching sight of the camera and diving for it.

He barely avoided a piece of flaming rope that belonged to Coyle. He was now swinging his rope, which was flaming with red fire as he swing it around to fend off the glowing butterflies that were flying on his way. He hadn't even noticed Patrick, and the hyena was extremely thankful for it.

Once he had the camera on his paws, the hyena soon rushed back to the main group.

"Dude, did you seriously just risked your life for a camera?" The pig said, and the hyena looked back at him.

"What? It's not you that will have to stand in front of my dad and say that you lost it after he told you seven times to be careful with it!"

"Look, can both of you kids talk about it later? I was kind of hoping to get out of here!" Nick said, and the rest of the group had to agree with him. The group started to move to the exit, however, it was easier said than done.

The fact that the mages were dodging the butterflies, and even trying to fight back at them made it quite risky to be able to pass by them, not to mention on how narrow the space actually was inside that storehouse.

"Damnit!" Bogo said as he looked around, trying to figure out a way to escape, and he saw an opening.

"This way!" He said to the others, as he went forward. However, the buffalo stopped dead on his tracks when something passed by him in high speed and punctured a hole in the wall of the storehouse, almost like a bullet.

Bogo gave a few steps back, and looked to see the tiger, laying on the ground. The big feline made a few movements with his paws, causing dust to come out of the ground and gather on his paw, condensing until it became like small pebbles. He flicked his fingers and the pebbles shot out of his paw at a high speed.

Bogo barely had time to dodge after he felt a sharp sting on his shoulder, making him take a hoof at it. Bogo took out the hoof to see that now it was stained crimson. Meanwhile, the tiger was doing it again, certainly getting ready to fire again.

"Chief!" Judy said, as she had seen the tiger and immediately targeted him with her dart gun. The first dart flew past the tiger, right in front of his face, causing him to roll out of the way before another dart was fired.

Judy was about to fire the third, when a paw grabbed her wrist. The bunny barely had time to look before an animal around her size slammed into her, and Judy blinked, as she suddenly felt warm and wet on the area of her abdomen.

The bunny blinked as the possum moved away from her, a bloodstained dagger in her paw. Judy looked down to see red staining her clothing.

"JUDY!" Nick screamed out as he saw Judy stumbling back, catching her before she hit the ground. The teenagers and Bogo all looked in horror, as the possum simply continued to look, before she had to dodge once more as another butterfly had gone dangerously close to her neck.

"Well, I guess that is enough of this." Percy said, as he put both of his hooves together, and a glow started to come out of them. As the horse unclasped his hooves, he now was holding what seemed to be a deck of cars in it, which glowed in the colors of the rainbow.

Suddenly, the horse made a wide, sweeping movement with his hoof, and the "deck" that was on his hand spread into cards made out of flames, each one burning in one of the colors of the rainbow. Then, with another movement, the cards flew into the air. Each one flying in direction to one of the butterflies.

Each butterfly hit by the cards exploded in flames and sparks, disappearing into the air. The cards flew into the air as if they were direct to the butterflies, hitting each one of them and exploding, freeing his partners from the attacks.

Soon, there were no butterflies left, and the horse was standing in there, holding a single flaming card on his hoof.

As everyone recovered, the mages turned their gaze to the three officers and three teenagers, who were now shrinking from them.

The horse gave a single step forward, and Bogo rose his dart gun.

"Don't move!" The buffalo boomed. The horse looked at him for a few seconds, and gave another step forward, prompting the bovine to pull the trigger and fire darts at him. Each dart that flew from the gun was hit in the middle of the air by fast swipes of the flame card in the horse's hoof, falling to the ground, slice clean.

Bogo looked at the horse, who simply gave him a look, as if he was asking "you done yet?"

Meanwhile, Nick was with Judy, kneeling by her side, with one paw supporting her head and the other in her stomach area, trying to contain the bleeding.

"Judy! Judy. Carrots! Can you hear me?" He asked her, and Judy seemed like she was trying to talk, but she coughed up some blood. "I-it's okay." Nick said to her. "It's okay, you are gonna be okay." However, Nick himself was not sure of that. She was bleeding very much.

Form the wound that the possum had made with a dagger.

"You bastards!" Nick cried out to them, as they now were once more facing the other group.

"Oh, so you care about her, Russet?" The tiger said, looking at the fox. "How interesting…"

"This night did not developed like we expected." The hyena said. "If you allow me to say… I'm not very happy now."

"Neither am I." Said Zane, as he stared daggers at the fox. "Your familiars just gave us a few wounds, fox!" He said as he wiped some wounds that were leaking blood on his body. He had a lot, Coyle himself only had two or three, and the others looked like they had none. The possum had a few as well, and she was not happy about them.

"Well, since his familiars did hurt us a little bit." The possum spoke, raising her hands. "What about [i]my[/i] familiars hurt him and his friends?"

Nick did not liked the way she said that, and he liked even less when she started to chant something that Nick did not understood. Soon, some kind of black smoke was forming around her, seemingly coming from the ground. The smoke gathered and seemed to become more defined and solid, until it had taken a form.

Snakes.

Half a dozen snakes as big as Nick had appeared from thin air, and they hissed and bared their fangs.

"Snakes!" Shawn cried out, and Bogo was now pointing his dart gun at the creatures that had just appeared.

"So, Officer." The possum said, "Ready to feel the sting of the Black Vipers?"

Nick could not give a retort to this. He had a paw on the open wound of his partner, trying desperately to keep it from bleeding even more, and now they were surrounded. Nick was never religious, but right now, he was praying for a miracle.

The snakes bared their fangs, and they looked about to attack, when suddenly, sparks flew from somewhere above and hit the snakes, making their heads explode in flame and smoke, before the snakes themselves disappeared.

"What the!?" The possum cried out, stepping back. She was surprised, as well as everyone. Especially when a booming voice came from the ceiling.

"This has gone long enough!"

All eyes were up now, as the voice came from there. "You have caused enough problem now!"

"Who are you?" Zane asked.

"Someone you would not like to have on your back!" The voice said, and something fell from the hole in the ceiling. It sunk its blade into the ground, and the animals could see, in the illumination of the place, a dagger with a silvery and very ornamented hilt.

The mammals all looked at that, and the mages, in particular, had a reaction.

"T-that is…" Coyle said, suddenly looking frightened. "Oh crap…"

"What are Enforcers doing here?" Percy said, looking up.

"This is our own business!" The voice shot back. "Now, you have been breaking laws of the Association and of the Codex! Now, turn around and leave them alone, and I'm willing to overlook what just happened."

The mages seemed to consider it.

"Sounds reasonable." Coyle said.

"So, Enforcers are now letting others go?" Percy asked as he looked up. "That is an interesting development."

"You have not caused lasting damage." The voice said.

"Excuse me!?" Nick cried out, as he still trying to stop Judy's bleeding.

"So, leave them alone, and leave behind the crystal, and this all will be forgotten."

The mages hesitated at this.

"Do we have to?" Coyle asked. "Come on! We worked so hard to do the thing with the crystal!"

"Would you rather have me report to the Association?" The voice boomed. "Or maybe contact the clans and let them know what you are doing in their lands?"

There was silence after that, and the mages all shared looks. The hyena, their leader, sighed, pulling out the small crystal from inside of her cloak. She placed it gently into the ground, and turned to the others, nodding wordlessly.

Soon, the mages were moving out, with Zane carrying the unconscious shape of Butch, and soon, the dog was doing something else.

After he tapped into his imaginary keyboard, a screen of blue light appeared right on the exit of the storehouse, and one by one, the mages passed through it. The last one to pass was Zane, who looked back at them. At the fox.

"Any of these days, you won't be so lucky, Russet." The tiger said, as if it was a warning, and jumped across the screen. Right after the screen disappeared.

There was a long silence, as the mammals in the storehouse tried to understand what had happened. Not one of them seemed to know what to do or what to say. Suddenly, the silence was broke by a sound of wings.

Looking up, the mammals had time to see a big winged creature coming out of the hole in the ceiling, and land gently into the ground. It was a big bird of prey, the curved and sharp beak made it clear, and it had a mammal on its back.

The figure hopped out of the back of the bird, and they could give a look at it. A weasel… no, a ferret. She was around the same size as Judy, if you did not count the bunny's ears, and she had a fit body. Of course, as far as it could be see, once she wore a thick sweater and a long pair of sweatpants. The fur of her head was of a cream coloration, with a dark-grey on a line that went down from between her eyes to the tip of her snout. Her eyes were blue, and they looked worried from behind the lenses of her glasses. She soon was rushing to the mammals in there.

"Are you all okay?" She asked, sounding genuinely concerned. "Did they hurt one of you pretty bad, right?"

"Yes! My partner!" Nick said. "That possum bitch stabbed her!"

The fox was still trying to stop the bleeding, but it seemed that it was not working very well.

"Let me see." The ferret female saw as she approached, and Nick hesitated.

"I want to help!" The ferret insisted, "Now, raise her shirt just a little, so I can look."

Nick hesitated only for a second more, and he did as she asked. He raised the shirt of the bunny, which was stained in blood, and allowed the wound to be seen clearly.

Nick looked away as he whined, not liking what he was seeing at all.

The ferret, however, exanimated the wound, and she had a very serious expression on her face. She got up.

"Hold her still." She spoke to Nick, and she put both of her paws together, as if she was getting ready to pray.

She closed her eyes, seemingly as if she was focusing, and she started to chant something, in a way similar to the way that the possum had done before the snakes materialized. After a few moments, she opened her eyes, her paws now glowing, and she continued to chant.

The ferret them knelt by the side of the bunny, who looked back at her, her nose twitching, before thrusting her paws forward and placing it right on Judy's wound.

The bunny flinched hard and gasped, causing the fox and the other animals around to panic for a moment, before they saw that the bunny was not trashing or screaming. Instead, Judy was breathing regularly, and her breathing was actually becoming better than it had been since she was stab in the stomach.

The ferret continued to chant for a few more moments, as she moved her paws over the bunny's belly, as if she wanted to cover the entire area of the wound, before she sighed and removed her paws.

Her paws continued to glow like that for a while, and who looked at them, would be able to see that the glow had a pattern, almost as if there were circuits in her pelt and fur. However, soon they stopped glowing.

The ones who stopped to look at the paws and looked back at the bunny's abdomen, where the paws had been, would see that there was no wound there.

Judy blinked, taking her own paws to her stomach, trying to find the wound that she knew was there, but she found nothing. Not a gash. Not a cut. Not even a scar.

Sitting up, Judy looked at her perfect stomach, which looked not to have been stab at all. She then looked back at the ferret, who looked at her neutrally as she adjusted her glasses.

Bogo, along with the three teenagers, had watched at everything in stunned silence, before he rose his hooves to the air, crying out:

"THAT'S IT! I GIVE UP! YOU WIN!"

Everyone now turned their eyes to the cape buffalo, who looked to be absolutely defeated and exhausted.

"MAGIC IS REAL!"