She took a deep shaky breath. The dust particles swirling in the air, caught in the sun-rays beaming through gaps in the curtains, entered her far too sensitive nose as she tried to calm herself. She blinked. The visions already fading from her eyes, the air no longer smelling of endless sweat, bodily fluids and death. Cold iron. No longer pressed against the skin of her wrist and neck. The cold dead eyes of her friend no longer judging her, long after her heart stopped beating. The half Lapine rabbit girl, Emily, blinked again. Making sure that the distant past stayed distant.

She looked down on her wrists. The scars she used to have there, long since healed after the second or third incident. She didn't get scars anymore. Physical scars anyways. She would still get dirty, sure. Dust, mud, grime, sap, blood and viscera would still cling to her body and clothes during travels or the odd job from the guild. But her blemishless skin, soft fur, and usually tangleless short hair, left her quite good looking despite the state of her travel wear. She was never one for fancy traveling. A good cloak, emergency rations, and a water stone for washing off every few days, and she’d be good to traverse long distances through the wilderness on her own.

She didn't have to travel much lately though, not after she FINALLY managed to evolve her Blink spell into Teleport. Her third spell ever. She had been told that spatial magic was difficult to learn but jeez. After all these years, it would be nice to have a bit more than just Spatial Storage, Blink and Teleport to show for her efforts. She knew she shouldn't complain too much though, as most people would be happy to have any affinity for magic at all. And the spatial affinity was an especially rare one. Additionally, she had never been taught by a magic instructor or teacher. She was entirely self taught.

But knowing only 3 spells isn’t great when you are looking to join the royal mage academy at the capital of the western kingdom. It is, in fact, the bare minimum. In order to gain admittance to the academy, one would have to know and be able to adequately perform three different spells, alongside passing a rudimentary combat test, and pay a substantial amount of gold for the tuition fee. Emily wasn’t really worried, and yet, Emily was really worried. What if the mage in charge of the spell tests couldn't tell the difference between Blink and Teleport? She only knew three spells. If he deemed them to be the same spell, then she wouldn’t be able to pass. What if she accidentally killed the instructor in charge of the combat test? That would be pretty bad. They definitely wouldn’t let someone dangerous into the academy. And it would be annoying to be accused of murder again. And even though paying the tuition fee wouldn't be a problem, what if the registration clerk demanded to know where she acquired the money? Emily certainly wasn’t part of the nobility. Demi-human commoners weren’t usually people capable of coughing up the obscene amount of money required to pay the admittance fee. What if she was accused of theft?

She took another deep breath to calm her nerves.

“Calm down Emily. After all you have been through, there is literally nothing they can do to you. If they deny you entrance, you can just look for a magic instructor elsewhere. Worst case scenario, you just run away.”

She rose from the bed in the corner of the clean and spacious inn-room, and walked over to the nice desk by the window. Her brown furry rabbit feet were entirely silent on the hardwood floor. Silent movements, regardless of the situation, was a skill she had acquired through necessity a long time ago. It was ingrained into her body, and merged seamlessly with the unparalleled strength and speed of her firm limbs. She never spared it a thought these days. She always moved on instincts. The instincts that had kept her alive. Always silent, always ready.

She grabbed a crystalized decanter on the desk. It was fancy and expensive looking. She removed the tap that made a familiar sound, and poured herself half a glass of her favorite apple brandy. Expensive stuff, just like the decanter itself, but similar to her movements, appearance, mannerisms and combat style, she stopped worrying about her finances years ago. Emily knew better than anyone, that death was unpredictable, and often just as sneaky as she was. So she would enjoy her favorite booze while she could. Besides, she had made sure to buy in bulk. She still had a few barrels in her storage. Alcoholism be damned.

She pulled away the loose curtains and stared at the world outside while making sure to enjoy every damned sip of her rapidly depleting glass. After a minute or two, her breathing was steady, glass was empty, and the slight tremble in her hands, that she had failed to notice, disappeared. Emily was ok. She had no family left. She hadn't bothered to try and make a friend in years, and she was constantly trying to keep her mind busy with alcohol, sex and the occasional quest. But it didn’t matter. Emily had decided that she was ok.

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Outside her window was the bright capital of the western kingdom. She was in a rented room in a wealthy commoner district. The eastern part, with the guilds and large merchant buildings. The adventurers guild where she got most of her work if she felt like it, or needed the cathartic release of excessive bloodshed to still her mind, was just down the street. The different kingdoms had slight alterations to the mercenary guilds dotting the continent, depending on government involvement and lawmaking, but the concept remained largely the same. Desperate individuals could sign up and undertake risky, dangerous, and often life-threatening jobs, often called “quests”, for money. The more dangerous and difficult the job, the more money would be rewarded to the idiots risking their lives.

Emily didn’t really approve of the mercenary guilds. A lot of deaths could have been avoided by not tempting young individuals to risk their lives for a few pieces of circular shiny metal. But she also understood the guilds filled a cynical void of necessity. Without them, the cities, towns and roads would be overrun with monsters and bandits and… slavers.

Emily quickly refilled her glass. Full this time, emptying the remainder of her decanter. She moved the glass to her lips with hands trembling more noticeable now, and took big gulps of the strong apple liquor. She never got drunk. Her body neutralizing any poison or venom before it could affect her. But she would still drink, preferring the burning of strong alcohol moving down her intestines, over the raging inferno in her chest.

“It’s ok Emily, it’s ok. They are all dead. You made sure of that”

She whispered shakily to herself between gulps. The visions had been getting worse the last few days. She hadn’t been this frayed for months. And she was supposed to meet up for her admission to the academy in a few hours. She briefly contemplated just dropping the entire thing, but shook her head. She put down the glass, took a few more deep breaths, and walked over to the washing bowl in the corner. She took out her water stone from her Spatial Storage. A small blue stone covered in runes appeared in mid air. After grabbing it and activating one of the runes covering it, making the rune glow faintly, a steady stream of cold water sprouted from it, filling up the bowl with cold water. Once the bowl was half full, she deactivated the stone, reached her seemingly innocent hands into the chilly water, and proceeded to splash her face repeatedly.

Cold water dripping from her face and shoulders, Emily looked up and stared at her reflection in the mirror over the bowl. Parts of her short dark brown hair were soaking wet, all the way up to the base of her ears. Long and thin, the fur a lighter shade of brown than her hair, protruding from the top of her head. Her face, blemishless, like the rest of her skin. Otherwise average, if not pretty looking, except for her eyes. Piercing red, with even darker red pupils. Emily couldn’t remember if she had the same eye color as a child. She couldn’t remember her childhood at all. And so she had no way of knowing if her eyes might have had a different color before the awakening of her accursed powers.

Cold water had followed the course of gravity, annoyingly enough, leaving her shirt and cropped pants uncomfortably moist and cold. With a small movement of her left hand, she put both articles of clothing directly into her Spatial Storage, leaving her toned lithe body stark naked in front of the mirror. Emily didn’t bother with undergarments. Her short brown fur from the waist down, made tight fitting panties itchy and uncomfortable, and her small chest needed nothing to be contained. Waterdroplets continued to drip from her shoulders, over her small breasts and further down over her firm abs towards the line of fur starting at her wide hips. Her fur was soft, short and warm, had the same shade of brown as her long rabbit-like ears, and covered her entire lower body. It thankfully got shorter and shorter on the inside of her thighs and towards her genitalia, to the point where it almost resembled light brown skin.

Thanks to her half Lapine heritage, her legs were also rabbit-like. Thick strong thighs, knees and calves, coming to meet an elevated ankle, connected to large rabbit feet at an angle. Her proportionally large legs gave her a bit more height than her lithe build would have otherwise suggested. Emily had at some point stopped lamenting over her large furry Lapine legs, as compared to other demi-human races with normal legs, when she considered her advantages provided in combat, with superior speed and stealth. Acknowledgement and acceptance of her physicality had been a necessity for her growth and survival.

With one exception. Her tail. Emily despised her tail with a passion. Above her firm buttocks, attached just below the fur line, was a white fluffy cotton-like rabbit tail. It was small. Far too small to be of any use whatsoever, and yet Emily thought it far too big. It made it annoying to wear clothes, as it would always be just too big for comfort. Even worse would be to cut a hole in her pants and leave it out in the open. It was eye-catching, and annoyingly sensitive to touch. It made Emily feel vulnerable. And Emily was done feeling vulnerable. Thankfully she had enough money for custom tailored pants, cropped below the knee to allow free range of movement for her large leporid feet, and with soft stretchy fabric in the area around her tail.

With another movement of her hand Emily took out a small towel from her storage, and dried off the cold water. Once dry, another movement of her hand, had her now damp towel stored away, and a new pair of shirt and pants appeared directly onto her body. She glanced at her reflection one more time. Her menacing red eyes greeted her. Her breath now steady. She moved away from the mirror and looked out the window. It was still early in the day. She had plenty of time before her academy registration.

“Fuck it! Let’s do this.”

Emily left her rented room, headed for her destiny.