(Chapter 1)

 

 

"Kiana? Where did you run off to, Princess?" Felixin called. The large grey wolf was looking around the house, trying to find his little girl.

 

"I swear, ever since she learned how to walk, she has just been determined to explore as much as she can," he said under his breath. He then opened the back door to their home and looked around the back yard, spotting the little grey bunny in the garden. He sighed and shook his head with a smile. There she was, in her little red sundress, all of age five, standing in the garden with a serious look on her face. He watched for a bit as she took a stance and kicked, switching to a punch. She continued with her kicks and punches, moving faster and faster, until her arms and legs were a blur. Felixin watched as she stopped when a chop from her hand to a large rock instantly split it in two.

 

"Princess," Felixin, unfazed by his daughter's apparent speed and strength, said in a stern voice, "no breaking rocks with your bare hands in the garden."

 

The little bunny stopped and slumped her shoulders, rolling her eyes. "Fiiiiine!" she said with a groan, before trudging back to her father.

 

 

Felixin smiled and quickly scooped her up into his arms, hugging her close. "And no going outside to play without telling Daddy first. You had me worried when you weren't in your room." Kiana rolled her eyes again and nodded.

 

Ever since coming to this world, Kiana had discovered that her martial arts training from her former life translated to this life perfectly. The world of Hettoph was one of magic and adventure. Felixin was actually the town wizard, with a specialization with fire-based magic. Pumala, Kiana's mother, was the town sheriff. While she lacked any magical ability, her prowess in a fight, especially with a sword, easily outclassed most who were unfortunate enough to break the law within the jurisdiction of the town of Starlight Rose.

 

Nestled within a lush valley, the surrounding mountains formed a natural barrier to the west and south. To the east lay idyllic Lake Phantom, which fed a river that ran west and alongside the town, turning north to partially encircle it. At the northern gate of the town was a wooden bridge that passed over a deep ravine, where the river gushed in a natural waterfall. Further up north, where the mountains would have met, they instead tapered off. Right in between the two mountain ranges was a lone, black, pointed outcropping of rock that the locals had dubbed The Spire, and all who looked upon it would go out of their way to avoid approaching it, if they could.

 

Despite that, Kiana was overall pleased with her new hometown. The people were friendly, even to outsiders. The population seemed pretty cosmopolitan to the young bunny's observations. There were humans, and anthropomorphic animal people of varying species, known as beasta. There were also elves and dwarves, and even mer-people who lived in Lake Phantom, regularly swimming with barges down the river to trade goods in town. Kiana was even surprised to learn that several groups of trees in the nearby woods were actually families of tree-people. They tended to walk and speak very slowly, but they were still active members of the community, with two of their elders as members of the village council.

 

She was amazed to watch her father work his magic, his role as the town wizard being one of high importance apparently, as it was his duty to investigate and assist in all things magically related in the town. Kiana had even gotten to go along with him and watch as he would chase out the occasional dark spirits that tended to infest peoples' homes from time to time. The older human man who had assisted with her own birth, she had learned, was named Matteo, and he was the town healer. Also a very prominent position, for what Kiana felt were fairly obvious reasons.

 

She had tried to copy what she had observed Felixin do when he would work his magic, motions and incantations to the best of her ability a couple of times, but nothing had happened. Well, nothing aside from Felixin seeing her copy him and finding that itself to be quite adorable, much to Kiana's consternation. That's not to say that Pumala didn't also dote on her daughter, but clearly, without even trying, Felixin was mostly wrapped around the little bunny's finger.

 

Kiana's grasp of the language, while not perfect, was definitely stronger than most in her age group at school, so she had begun seeking out scrolls and books that could better teach her about magic. This was after she had asked her teacher when they would start learning magic and been informed that being so young, it was much too dangerous for her and her classmates to try. Frustrated, she then went about looking into whatever she could find to learn about it herself. Her reasoning was that she had been reincarnated in a world with magic, why not go out of her way to learn all about it?

 

So far, the only thing that worked was when she was practicing her stances and focusing. She could feel a strange source of energy that she couldn't before in the back of her mind. She had yet to break through that barrier, the first time she tried resulted in her casually smashing a rock with her fist, and that had been a half-hearted punch anyway. Surprised, the little bunny had quickly discovered that she seemed much stronger and faster than she appeared.

 

Case in point being when one of the steam-powered wagons from the roaming traders had broken down on the bridge, blocking traffic, the trickle of it that was at the time. Kiana had surprised herself, and many onlookers, when she, on a whim, had walked up to the wagon, which had been laden down with packaged items, crates, and barrels, all filled with who knows what, and picked it up. She carried it the rest of the way across, holding it up over her head with her two paws. That had been six months ago and, with constant training whenever she could sneak away to do so, Kiana realized that her strength and speed and stamina were only growing.

 

She sighed as she sat there, in Felixin's arms, the big goofy wolf talking about surprising her mother to go on a picnic for her lunch break. Kiana had at first hated how others had doted on and babied her, but after a while... she had found the ministrations of her parents to be rather... nice. Even if they did regularly purchase for her dresses with bows and frills and dollies to play with.

 

"Papa?" Kiana asked, getting her father's attention.

 

"Yes, princess?" he asked with a bright smile, his tail wagging.

 

"I wanna... I wanna be evaluated at the Adventurer's Guild!" she said.

 

Felixin froze as he stopped to look down at his little girl.

 

"P-princess," he started, feeling uncomfortable, "you can't be evaluated at the guild, you're just a little girl. How about instead we go have a nice picnic lunch with your Mama, and then you and I can stop and get you a new dolly to play with? I think that sounds great!"
Kiana sighed, having been expecting Felixin's overprotectiveness to show.

 

"I have enough dollies. I want to get evaluated at the guild! If you or Mama, or both of you give special permission, I'm sure Guildmaster Graval would let me be evaluated!"

 

"Princess," Felixin said with a sigh, an amused smile forming on his lips, "adventuring is only for grown-ups. That's because grown-ups are big and strong. When you're older, sure, we can go and have you evaluated, but right now you are just too little and, well, not so strong."
Kiana was quickly becoming a master at eyerolling in this new life. Felixin always seemed to have a bit of a blind spot when it came to her abilities. As far as she could tell, it was possibly a form of denial about her strength and speed, despite blatant evidence.

 

"I. Want. To. Be. Evaluated. Papa." Kiana said, her voice calm and steady, but emphasizing each word.

 

Felixin frowned, until an idea formed in his head. His tail started to wag and his goofy grin returned.

 

"Alright, princess," he said, now the one rolling his eyes as he stopped at the kitchen table and set Kiana down on her booster seat. He took a seat across from her and set his right elbow down on the table, the paw extended to his daughter. "If you can beat me just once in arm wrestling, then we'll go and get you evaluated at the guild. Okay?"

 

"Okay!" Kiana said, his much larger paw practically enveloping her own tiny one.

 

"Now, I won't go easy on you, sweetie. But let Daddy know if your arm hurts and we'll stop," he said with a chuckle.

 

 

Half an hour later...

 

 

Felixin, his right arm in a sling with a bandage around his forehead, was grumbling to himself as he, Kiana, and Pumala, who was still wearing her forest green cloak and badge, stood outside the Guild hall.

 

"Oh stop your grumbling, Feli," the bunny woman said, smiling at her husband. "This is your own fault for making up that silly competition. As well as for getting thrown outside through the kitchen wall."

 

"She's just too little, and too delicate!" he insisted. Pumala reached over and gently touched his cheek. She loved her husband dearly, but she knew that there was no stopping Kiana when she had her mind set on something. Picking her up, Pumala, with Felixin in tow, walked up the stone steps towards the large, three story great oak building near the center of town. The great oak that it was built from had all been carved to depict epic battles, great monsters and, at the four corners of the roof, dragons. Entering through the wide double doors, the family was met with the sounds of raucous laughter, boisterous singing, and a loud general chatter. They could even see, over by the job listing board, that a fight had broken out between two dwarves. Fists and kicks flying every which way, with several adventurers around them clearly placing bets and cheering them on.

 

"This is no place for a sweet little girl like our baby," Felixin said as a drunk gnome staggered by them, singing something in a strange language. Pumala clicked her tongue. She wanted to agree with her husband, but the bunny woman was well aware that their daughter was MUCH tougher than he gave her credit for, and when she was determined to do something, she was going to do it, one way or another. Still, she couldn't help but frown as she looked at the general chaos of the local Adventurer's Guild.

 

As sheriff for Starlight Rose, she didn't appreciate how much collateral damage occurred when adventurers were involved. She also found the fact that they would only lend the aid of their services for coin or glory distasteful. Yes, she had a yearly salary, but even if she didn't, she'd still step up to protect the town and the people within it whenever an emergency rose. Still, she had met a few adventurers who genuinely wanted to help people and did so regularly, even waiving the fee for their services. That being said, she wasn't too thrilled to be standing there, about to let her daughter be examined. Together, the family headed towards the stairs, not being stopped by any of the Guild faculty, as they knew full well who Pumala was. Some of the patrons even tried to hide their faces, knowing that they had active warrants for their arrests in some jurisdictions.

 

Heading through a few hallways, they came to the office of Guildmaster Graval. Pumala didn't even bother to knock and simply opened the solid oak double doors. Kiana hadn't been expecting the interior to look so... orderly. The walls were lined with bookshelves, with each title in alphabetical order or series order as needed. There was a beautiful Cascadian rug, with swirling whirlpools of greens and blues, taking up the majority of the hardwood floor. There were two red leather sofas facing each other, and two similarly designed red leather armchairs facing an ornately carved cherry wood desk. Behind the desk, sitting in a plush green leather chair was a human man.

 

Guildmaster Graval easily stood at seven feet tall, and was over three hundred pounds of solid muscle. His black hair was a ponytail of cornrows. The chocolate brown skin on his face flecked with a few scars, souvenirs of past battles and adventures. He was wearing a suit and tie, as he usually did when out and about in town. His left eye glinted in the light as he looked up, said eye actually a ruby that he could see through. Kiana suspected that he could see a lot more than the average eye through that thing. He smiled up at the entering family, and set down the quill he had been using to write something on a piece of parchment with.

 

"Sheriff and Chief Wizard Thorne," he said as he stood up, his voice a deep baritone, "to what do I owe the pleasure of your company, as well as the company of your daughter?"

 

Pumala sighed as she took a seat, while Felixin sat and started to cross his arms but stopped when he remembered the sling due to the increasing pain, and simply sat and frowned. "We've come today because Kiana here... wants to be an adventurer when she grows up," Pumala said this, unable to stop a slight wince as she said it, sitting her daughter in her lap.

 

"I see," Graval said with a chuckle. "And you would like for me to dissuade her from this career option well before she is old enough to commit to it?" Felixin snorted at that and harrumphed, but otherwise was silent. Pumala simply shook her head.

 

"Actually, my husband made a deal with her today. They would arm wrestle and, if she won, we would come to the guild to arrange for her to be evaluated."

 

Graval took another look at Felixin, and let out a bellowing laugh. Kiana smiled, liking the guy already. "I've heard of some of the... mischief that your daughter has gotten into from time to time." Graval said, smiling wide. "And her exceptional strength. But she is just FAR too young to register with the Adventurer's Guild Association."

 

"We, Kiana included, are well aware of that fact," Pumala said, her voice even, "but she has so far insisted that she only wants to be evaluated today, and that she will join when she is of age." At this, Kiana nodded enthusiastically. Graval smiled down at the adorable little bunny in her red sundress, with the matching bows on the tips of her ears, and chuckled.

 

"I suppose I can arrange for you to have an official evaluation today, if that's truly what you want, Kiana," Graval said to the girl.

 

"Yes, please!" she said, bouncing in her mother' lap. "I'm just dying to know how I stack up already compared to other applicants!"

 

Graval chuckled again, amused by the whole idea. "Alright then, with your parents' permission," Felixin had to bite back a growl, "we'll start your evaluation right away."

 

Both Pumala and Felixin looked shocked. "Really? Just like that?" she asked.

 

"Well, I am curious to see how she does myself," Graval admitted, standing up from his seat again, and starting to walk around it towards the door. Felixin looked to his wife, wanting to object. She simply looked to him and nodded. The two stood, with Kiana still in her mother's arms, and they followed the veritable human giant out of his office, back down the stairs, and out the back to the practice yard where evaluations were also held. Spotting the Guildmaster and the town sheriff and chief wizard heading out back piqued the curiosity of just about every adventurer not currently passed out or unconscious from the earlier fight. As one, they all rushed towards the back exit to see what was going to happen. When it became clear that the five year old daughter of the sheriff and chief wizard was about to be evaluated, a number of adventurers laughed, some seemed offended, and others started placing bets.

 

Kiana found herself standing in the middle of a cobblestone courtyard. There were practice dummies, some made of straw, others wood, and others still made from solid carved granite, near the far wall. There was also a pool of water, a strange metal cylinder with a slot carved near the top, the front half of what looked like a two story house, and a large wooden contraption that had what looked like parts that could spin and move. Kiana was so excited.

 

"Alright, Kiana," Graval said, tapping his ruby eye three times. It glowed red with the first tap, then turned green with the second, and was now a deep sapphire, giving off a soft blue glow. "Let's get started." At Graval's beckoning, Kiana's parents, albeit reluctantly, stepped away to join the adventurers in watching. They stood under the back entrance to the guild hall, underneath the famous stone giant war axe that Graval himself had taken off his slain foe. Said axe blade alone was as large as the man himself, and had required ten stout workers and a series of pulleys to lift up to bolt to the wall. It twinkled in the light ominously, at least to Felixin who looked up at it and then back at his little princess. With a snap of Graval's fingers, and the straw dummies stood up straight. Some walked over to a weapon rack and grabbed some wooden swords and shields, while others walked over to where the two stood and made fists, taking a fighting stance.

 

"First, we'll see how well you do in a simple fight, and we'll keep upping the difficulty as needed, alright?" Graval asked.

 

"Alright!" Kiana responded enthusiastically, taking a fighting stance herself.

 

"Now, what kind of weapon would you like to try?"

 

"I'm good with my bare fists for now."

 

Graval chuckled again. "Alright, a little pugilist," he said, reaching down and ruffling her tufted headfur. The little bunny frowned but said nothing, instead taking a few deep breaths and focusing. She could feel the wellspring of energy within herself once again. Tapping into it, she felt that energy flood her body and, when she opened her eyes, they were glowing a light blue. Surprised, Graval stepped back to watch, and tapped his eye again, the gem taking on a purple color.

 

The unarmed straw dummies first approached, and attempted to swing at the girl. Kiana easily dodged each strike, and battered one away with the back of her hand. The dummy went flying, falling apart as it did so. The next one she jumped up and kicked its head off, and the third she simply caught it by the wrist, ripped its arms out, and proceeded to simply beat it to "death" with its own severed straw arms. That brought some laughs from the adventurers, just as the next dummies, these also straw but armed with wooden swords and shields, approached.

 

With a running jump, Kiana kicked at the lead dummy, which tried to block with the shield. The wood splintered as though it were thin plywood, and not the solid wood it was. The dummy itself practically disintegrated from the force of the kick. The adventurers were silent now, watching with rapt attention. Kiana proceeded to make quick work of the rest of the straw dummies, and then of the wooden ones. It was when her blows rapidly broke apart the stone dummies that new bets were placed.

 

After that, Kiana was instructed to use a bow and arrow to destroy some targets. Within and around the fake house, targets would pop up, only to be struck with the arrows fired by the five year old with the short bow and arrows provided to her. The same happened to the flying clay discs that were fired from the metal cylinder through the open slot. Then they were fired at her with the instruction she was to dodge and then destroy them. The magical clay disks were so slow, at least to Kiana's mind, that she had plenty of time to dodge and then turn around and punch, chop, or kick them. The adventurers watching were amazed, as many of them hadn't done so well with that test.

 

Moving on, Kiana was instructed to make her way through the wooden obstacle course and reach the treasure chest at the very end. Getting onto the long wooden contraption, she started to run along it. Each time the spinning boards would come at her, she simply smashed right through them. Instead of dodging the giant log that had almost surprised her, she instead stopped it with one hand and, grabbing it with the second, ripped the log in half straight down the middle, clearly with very little effort on her part. She then skipped the rest of the way, easily sidestepping some traps, and grabbed the treasure chest. She was surprised to find that inside were a bunch of gold coins. Excited, she grabbed them, only to find that they were just chocolate coins in gold wrappers.

 

Graval scratched his chin and then nodded. He snapped his fingers as Kiana was walking back, carrying the chest of chocolate gold coins, and that was when a metallic door in a wall opened. Out came charging a giant black spider. It hissed and scuttled straight towards the little bunny. Kiana, only using one hand to carry the chest, looked back at the spider calmly. It was soon upon her, ready to bite down. She simply swatted it with her hand... and in an instant, it was there, and then, there was a large green splatter all where it had been. Kiana smiled at her handiwork.

 

Graval smirked... and while the girl's back was to him, he quickly pulled from within his jacket a throwing axe, which he hurled, spinning, at the bunny. Kiana turned and caught it, hurling it back with a flick of her wrist. Graval caught it and marveled at the force behind such a casual throw, certain that his palm was going to be bruised and sore. When he looked back at the girl with a smile on his face, he was puzzled not to see her. Out of pure instinct, he jumped back, just in time to avoid the stone giant axe come crashing down where he had been standing just moments before, smashing a hole in the cobblestone. Kiana was at the very end of the handle, hanging on by wrapping both arms almost around it. She looked down at him with fury in her glowing blue eyes.

 

"Woah, wait! I surrender! That was all part of the test too! See? The axe is just rubber!" Graval said quickly, holding up one hand in surrender while the other flopped the rubber axe back and forth. Kiana then looked surprised and said. "Oh!" before hopping down from the axe and smoothing her sundress. The adventurers, Pumala, and even Felixin were staring, mouths open, in pure shock. Graval looked to where the axe had been bolted to the outside wall, amazed that in the time it had taken for the rubber axe to make it back to him and be caught, the little bunny girl had run over to the giant axe, ripped it out of the bolts, and been able to attack him with it. It had taken an entire cart with four mechanical horses to bring the axe back in the first place.

 

"Uhm... sorry about using your trophy axe and breaking the cobblestones," Kiana said, looking down at her feet. Graval, amazed, bellowed out the hardest laugh yet.

 

"That's alright, Kiana!" he said, reaching down to ruffle her headfur again. "That was just... unexpected!" He then waved an arm to the assembled adventurers. "With that little trick, a number of established adventurers had been taken by surprise. Those that weren't usually just dodged the axe, very few ever caught it, and fewer still threw it back. And in all that time... no one has thought to attack me with the stone giant war axe in retaliation!" Once more he laughed. "With that, your evaluation is over, Kiana."

 

The two walked back to the guild hall where an excited Kiana, who had stopped to pick up the chocolate gold coins in the chest, leapt into her mother's awaiting arms.

 

"Did you see? I think I did great!" Kiana said, nuzzling Pumala's neck. Pumala, while still shocked at just how strong, fast, and already skilled in fighting her daughter was, smiled down at her, hugging her close.

 

"You sure did, honey-bunny." Pumala looked to her husband who, while looking proud, also seemed worried. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, while Kiana reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. He smiled and his tail started to wag. A few minutes later, the family were sitting in Graval's office once again, this time with Kiana happily unwrapping the chocolate coins and eating them one at a time, delighted to learn that it was the famous gnome chocolate.

 

"Well... this certainly was unprecedented," Graval said, his purple gem eye looking straight at the bunny girl. "Normally an applicant, or someone else being evaluated, gets themselves a copper, or maybe a silver ranking. Rarely, someone will get a gold."

 

"So my little girl's a gold-star equivalent?" Felixin asked, amazed.

 

"I'd put her in platinum rank, actually. At age five, she's already hit platinum rank. Some adventurers go their whole careers never advancing to it..." Graval said, in wonder.

 

"So what happens now?" Pumala asked, hugging her daughter close, who didn't seem to be paying attention, as she had chocolate to attend to.

 

"I'm having Louise finishing up an official certification acknowledging her ranking, a copy of which will be entered into our records, and another entered into the Adventurers' Guild Association's records. If she is truly dead set on becoming an adventurer when she grows up, she'll be given a platinum ranking right from the start. And I can't wait to see how much higher she'll climb." Graval smiled as Kiana yawned and, with some chocolate on the corners of her mouth and drooping eyes, she curled up in Pumala's lap and fell asleep.
Felixin looked over and grinned sheepishly. "This is usually her naptime."

 

Graval just softly chuckled and nodded, still amazed at the pure power his gem eye was seeing practically radiating from the girl. He already made a mental note to make some inquiries based on a budding theory, but decided not to voice his thoughts to the parents just yet, at least not until he had time to conduct a little research. With a reluctant thanks from Pumala and Felixin, they bidded the guildmaster farewell and, with Felixin cradling his daughter in his good arm, Pumala carried the chest of chocolate gold coins. They stopped by the front desk to collect the certificate, which had already been framed. The faculty and the adventurers looked on in awe at the sleeping bunny girl. And with that, the family made their way home.

 

 

Name: Kiana
Species: Beasta (Rabbit-Kin)
Age: 5
Skills: (Reluctant) Tea Party, Puppy-Dog Eyes, Advanced Martial Arts, Brawling, Sarcasm Level 2, Eyerolling Level 5
Class: Kindergartner, (Unofficial) Veteran-Level Dragon Monk
Str: 115
Int: 12
Dex: 102
Cha: 12
Wis: 10
Con: 110

Languages: Common

 

 

And there you have it, readers! I certainly hope that you enjoyed the start of my new story!