Darkness.

Only darkness surrounds him.

Pitch black nothingness.

Within the eternal sea of blackness, voices can be heard, broken and incomprehensible at times.

"Doct- Patient is reacting well to trea-"

"Good. Keep up the go- Let him rest. He's going to need it for the D- Code- a-"

Confused and unfamiliar with his surroundings, the last part of those spoken words seem to ring a bell within his mind.

"Da-kot-a. My name is Dakota? No, that can't be right... Who am I? Where am I?"

"Hey! Is anyone there! Where am I!? What are you doing to me!?"

He shouted into the abyss, and soon after a bright light like the sun torn from heavens appeared above him. Accompanied by the voices from earlier, now fading in and out. It was difficult for our protagonist to understand their words through the copious amount of foreign chemicals being pumped into him, thickening the layers of fog within his brain.

"Begin the tran-"

"Yes, Doc-"

Dakota now flying up towards the light within the starless void, entered the portal into the unknown.

"Woah! Woah! Woah!"

Screaming the entire way through the vortex.

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Arriving on the other side of the portal, things were not as they were before. Within the void, Dakota had what appeared to be, a physical body, but here, something was off. Ever since emerging from the portal, his perspective of the world was much too low to be right. Deciding to inspect his physical form, Dakota looked down upon his... hands?

"What is this? What are those? Am I some kind of animal? This isn't funny anymore! I want out!"

With white paws raised into the air, yelling into the sky above, or so Dakota thought was yelling, was in fact squeaking. With every word, a squeak came out of his new form's mouth. Bringing his now distinctive paws up to his face, he felt a large set of teeth sticking out of his upper lip. Large ears adorned his head, those of a rabbit it seemed. Along with what felt like a spiral-shaped horn in the center of his forehead.

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"I'm a... rabbit? Am I dreaming?"

Some text appeared in a slightly opaque box in the corner of his vision.

RACE: Horned Rabbit

Level: 1

XP: 0 / 10

Traits / Abilities: Jump, Increased Jump Height, Jump Attack, Horn Bash, Increased Movement Speed, Minor Health Regeneration, Vegetarian, Wind Soul.

"Horned Rabbit? Like a Jackalope? Wha-"

Dakota was quickly cut off by the sound of shouts in the distance. He tried to peer into the direction of the shouts but he quickly found out his new form doesn't have anything remotely like the eyes of a hawk. So, he decided to run towards the shouting.

Upon reaching the destination, a group of adventurers dressed as though they had just filmed a fantasy series for television, were attacking an enormous version of a horned rabbit. This one black-furred with red eyes and the size of a Great Dane. The party was having trouble with the monster rabbit as it jumped around them at high speed dodging all the arrows from their human archer.

"I can't hit it Drogan! What am I supposed to do about its speed!?"

Yelled the archer to the apparent party leader as he nocked another arrow, missing the black rabbit once again.

"What do you want me to do about it!? I am a little preoccupied with guarding your ass aren't I?"

Drogan roared back as the black rabbit charged his wooden buckler with its solitary spiral horn at the ready. So fast that you wouldn't be able to see it under normal circumstances, but these adventurers seemed to be quite able to handle its speed nonetheless.

Despite the shoddy wooden appearance of his shield, Drogan successfully blocked the hit with apparent ease and slashed away at the rabbits back to no avail. The black horned rabbit dodged the sword swing by a hair's breadth.

"What do I do? Do I help the rabbit or the humans?"

Dakota asked out loud in confusion about what to do in this situation. Then as if to answer his question, the giant horned rabbit stopped moving and stared at him intently. A black smoke moving from its fur, slowly rolling across the grassy fields towards Dakota's body. Scared and unsure of what to do, Dakota just sat there, both back legs haunched in an upright position.

"Don't let the corruption get that little one! We don't need two of these things on our hands!"

Shrieked Drogan towards his two other party members. The third, who at this point hadn't really done much of anything, simply held up her gnarled wooden staff towards Dakota's frozen mass. Unable to move due to an unnatural force upon his small frame, the smoke grew ever closer.

"FIRE IS THY CLEANSING SOURCE OF ALL LIFE. CLEANSE THY EVIL BEFORE ME. CHAR AND DESTROY IN HOPES OF BEING REBORN! FIREBALL!"

The chant was shouted so fast that Dakota barely had time to register what was happening... In a flash, a hurling ball of fire slammed into his fur and started to burn him alive. The pain is unbearable, but as fast as the chant had been cast, the pain subsided and it was back to the void. Everything within Dakota's vision going black.

After a moment, he opened his eyes once again and this time he was in the body of a humanoid it seems as when he looked down at his hands this time, he actually had fingers. He just hoped this time will end in a better outcome than the previous life. The pain from the burns still mentally scarring his thoughts, unable to think about anything else, he fell to the floor in a feeble position. Maybe sleeping this nightmare away will solve all his problems...

END.