Six years pass. Although the Wart's education has continued and he has been transformed into countless different animals, he has grown melancholy and jealous of Kay's impending knighthood. Kay, of course, has no concern for the Wart's feelings and remains a stubborn and sarcastic young man. Merlyn consoles the Wart by telling him that "only fools want to be great," but the Wart pays him no heed, instead telling Merlyn how he would behave, given the chance to be knighted.
The week before Kay's knighting ceremony, Merlyn delivers him one last lecture on the value of education and begins the Wart's last lesson by transforming him into a badger. On his way to the badger hole, the Wart meets a frightened hedgehog, who describes the terrors that the badgers inflict upon him and his kind, as well as the kindness shown to him by Merlyn. When the Wart meets the badger, he is asked to listen to the badger's treatise on why Man has become master of the animals. After he hears the badger's argument, the Wart reveals that he has not, in fact, wholly understood the point.
