Kyli Goes to Battle School

Kyli fetched up the end of her tail, and with her other hand smoothed out the tuft of hair on the end till it came to a point. She idly began brushing the underside of her chin with it.
In the stories, when one was accepted to an elite, specialized school, there was always some welcoming committee or some kind of ceremony. Or both. Fancy if outmoded transportation was usually involved, then a feast. At some point during the process one met both her school career nemesis/bully and her destined best friend. Possibly a mentor, as well. Then again, in the stories, some mentor would have greeted her long before classes started to help her prepare – make sure she had the needed supplies. As a bonus, such a mentor would reveal a clue about her being chosen for a special destiny as well.
Stop being such a child, Kylie, she told herself. Clearly, she wasn't the chosen one, because there had been no one to tell her so. That means she was the best friend of the chosen one. OR THE GIRLFRIEND OF THE CHOSEN ONE, she thought. She barely suppressed a squeal by burying her face into the tail fur.
You. Must. Chill, another part of her brain told her.
That's right, she recognized. I've got to meet the chosen one before I can date them.
She felt the rational part of her head sigh in resignation. Baby steps, it said.
I wonder how soon we'll kiss.
She felt that small corner of her head scream. Kyli grinned and skipped forward, swinging her tail in the hand that still held it. Her other hand brushed fuzzy ears that jutted from her head upward and out, just to make sure they were still groomed.
The entrance to Battle School at the Adventurer's University of Caldonia was a wide, arched tunnel underneath what looked like a gate house. There was no gate or portcullis tho. It was dark in the tunnel, but not scary dark, with daylight at each end. She continued skipping, her tail swing turning into a twirl.
When she emerged from the tunnel she stopped short. The tail hung still from her hand as she looked around. She was in a massive courtyard. It reminded her of the field in some huge stadium. To her left and right the walls of the building, spotted with classroom windows, curved away from her, closing back together in the distance, closing off a giant ellipse. On top of the buildings on the longer side there were a few steep bleachers.
"Woah," she breathed. "The Battlefield." She studied in awe the grounds where hundreds of fighters and scrappers had proved themselves, or been defeated. The famous training and testing ground of Battle School. It was like hallowed ground.
She noticed then she wasn't alone. There were a couple students sparring with staves off to her left.
Excited, Kyli moved closer to watch. But as she skipped over, one of the students paused, took a shallow bow, then turned and walked away. The remaining student, an usagin with rabbit-like ears, was wearing a light blue blouse over a yellow plaid skirt. She had dark skin and black, tightly curled hair pulled back into an enormous ponytail. The fur of her ears was also black. She twirled her staff and then planted it in the ground. She glanced over and appeared to notice Kyli. Then winked.
Kyli grinned and reached into her pocket. She pulled out she a thing she called the humdinger, partly because of the noise it made when she got it spinning. She had received it from Mei Mei, her first mentor. Kyli literally nearly had died to meet Mei Mei for the first time.

***
At the end of the path, in the clearing, a group of human boys, older than Kyli by at least five years, surrounded someone on the ground. Kyli, carrying a big stick she had found, snuck closer, taking slow steps as softly as she could. The person on the ground was another iguntail -- a girl with mouse ears and tail. The girl, about the same age as the boys, was curled into the fetal position and crying.
"We got ourselves a little mousie, boys!" one of the kids said.
The others guffawed. Kyli actually wasn't entirely sure what "guffawed" meant, but the obnoxious noise these boys made sounded like the word applied. "Didn't even need to set a trap!" another one sneered.
"We should give the mouse to the cat!" the first one suggested. This was bad news. The cat was almost certainly the puma that had been prowling the area recently.
Kyli had heard enough. She raised the stick high over her head, and just as two of the boys turned, she yelled, "Leave her alone!" and brought the stick down with all her might on the first kid's dirty blond head, breaking the branch in two. The kid fell to his knees with a grunt.
"What the…" one of the others said. Then "Get her!"
This is the part where you run, Kyli! She thought. She whirled and tore as fast as she could back the way she came.
She could hear them running after her. She was naturally quick, but those boys were older. They probably had a good chance of catching her. She cut left suddenly into the forest.
That allowed her to get a few more steps ahead, but it wasn't going to last. She jumped to the top of a fallen tree, then leaped. The boys had to climb over or run around. A few more steps gained.
But it didn't take them long to make it up. Soon, even with the underbrush, the bullies were catching up to her. She ducked a swipe and tried to put a little more umph into her step. Then she saw the ravine, and she grinned.
Just as the lead boy was about to grab at her again she jumped down into the gulch. As she did, she grabbed the willow branch that partially blocked the way forward. She dropped about five feet and let go, enjoying the sound as it knocked the wind from the kid behind her. He tumbled to the bottom of the ravine as well.
Kyli didn't pause, but immediately started running along the bottom of the gully. She gained a little more distance as the other boys descended more cautiously.
She was running out of tricks, though. I'm gonna get pounded to mush and die an unsung hero.
Then she found the end of the ravine. A pile of rocks and logs had fallen, blocking her path. There was no way she could get up the four meters or so and still keep a lead.
Time to go down fighting, she thought. She climbed the closest boulder, about a meter or so high, and crouched for an instant, waiting for the bullies to get close. The she jumped straight at them.
It went much better than she expected. Her foot kicked the one in front in the head, and her momentum carried her into another. She and the boy both tumbled to the ground, Kyli already biting and scratching.
It wasn't enough. A moment later, two boys grabbed her arms and hoisted her off their friend, holding her off the ground. It wasn't hard; iguntails were light.
She saw a boy stumbling toward her, his hand on the back of his head. Kyli was pleased to note there was blood. Got him good, at least.
The boy didn't say anything, he just pulled back to punch her.
… and his hand kept pulling back. It took Kyli an instant to realize why. Something had wrapped around his wrist and pulled back sharply. The bully fell to the ground.
A sort of buzzing hum could suddenly be heard. Everyone, even Kyli, looked up and around to figure out what it was. Suddenly, the hum stopped and something bounced off one of Kyli's captor's cheek bone with a thok and ricocheted off her other captor, just above the ear, this time with a thunk.
Both boys grabbed cried out, let go, and put their hands to their heads.
The humming started again, and at least Kyli saw the origin. A wizened iguntail woman, in her seventh decade at least, stood at the top of the ravine, spinning something on a cord in one hand.
"You boys best be goin' now," she hollered.
"She's just an old rat!" the kid with the head wound yelled. She can't do this to us!"
Kyli took a moment to wonder if he was naturally stupid or if it was the injury talking.
The other boys apparently weren't any smarter, though. Two of them started to climb the rock slide to get to the woman. Whatever the old iguntail was holding zipped out and smashed into the hand of first one boy, then the other. The both shouted in pain as they slid back to the ravine floor.
"Use more brains than you got in your knuckles, lads," the old woman called out, spinning her weapon once more. "Unlessin you want more broken bones."
The boys paused a moment. The one bleeding glared at their tormentor, then at Kyli. Then he grunted. "Let's go," he muttered.
Kyli watched them march off, grinning a little.
What about the girl? Her eyes went wide at the sudden thought. She called out to her rescuer, "There's a girl…"
"Already safe, darlin'." The old woman said. Whatever she had been spinning she now held in one hand. The humming had stopped as well.
Kyli relaxed a little. "Good." Then, an instant later she remembered her manners. "I mean, thanks. You saved me."
"Aye," the woman nodded. "Come on up here. I want a closer look at ye." She waved her arm to call Kyli over.
Dutifully, Kyli scrambled up the rocks. A few moments later she was in front of the old woman, still looking up at her. She was tall. Kyli's preconception of old people was that they were usually bent backed and fragile. This woman was neither. She was tall, fit, and sharp-eyed. Her gaze seemed to penetrate Kyli's skin.
Oddly, Kyli didn't mind. It was weird, but Kyli didn't have anything to hide.
"What's your name, girl?" the old woman asked.
"Kyli," Kyli answered, briefly bowing her head. As one should with their elders, she told herself, proud to have remembered.
"Well, Kyli, you're quite the scrapper, ain't ye?"
Kyli grinned, "I like to think so."
"Well, you're right. But don't let it get to your head. Being a scrapper ain't enough, as ye can tell. Those little apeshits would have skinned ye if I hadn't come along."
Kyli hung her head a little, sheepish.
"Alright. Well, I'm Mei Mei," the old iguntail said. "Come with me. Reckon ye need to learn to use The Silver Paw of the Puma."
As Kyli learned over the next several months, The Silver Paw of the Puma was the weird weapon Mei Mei had used. It was a silver ball that fit comfortably in one's hand. It felt smooth, though if you looked closely it had etchings in various runes and symbols all over it. There was a band encircling it, a series of ridges perpendicular to the band's path, a few millimeters above the ball's surface, alternating with ridges a few millimeters below. The band had a copper tinge to it, but was still mostly silver. Kyli tried to count the ridges, but lost count every time.
From one of the ridges a thin cord emerged. It retracted when not in use, and Kyli could not find the full length of the cord, or discover what it was made of. But the cord never wore out and after a few months, she instinctively knew if she could reach something with it. When she held the cord and spun the ball by it, it made the buzzing hum sound, which she quickly found soothing.
Mei Mei showed Kyli how to use it. First how to hit simple targets and retrieve the ball automatically. Then how to fetch distant objects by getting the ball to curl around them. She learned to hit multiple targets in one throw by bouncing it off each one, and how to use the ball to parry attacks.
Mei Mei was a genius, and constantly seemed to have one more trick to teach.
For years they continued like that. Until Mei Mei had a stroke.
Unable to teach Kyli any more, Mei Mei arranged for Kyli to enter Battle School and sent her off.

***
And now, here she was. Mei Mei hadn't told given Kyli any instructions on who to talk to or give her any advice. She just said Kyli would figure it out. Fortunately, Kyli had received a schedule, so she knew at least the room numbers she should go to. Though she wasn't sure where she would be staying.
Kyli started spinning her humdinger (she always felt weird calling it The Silver Paw, and she felt that it didn't mind, anyway), summoning the humming sound. She met the usagin's gaze and grinned.
The usagin tilted her head a little. One of her ears flopped just halfway, dangling in the direction she tilted. "What's that?" she asked.
"A duel!" Kyli shouted ecstatically. She hurled the humdinger at the usagin.
It hit the poor girl in the eye and she crumpled to the ground.
"AH!" Kyli shouted in alarm and ran forward.
I've killed the Chosen One! her panicked mind screamed.