Judy Hopps was an initiate of the imperial mage order. She was the first rabbit to ever have been accepted into the imperial magic academy (though she was also the first rabbit to ever apply). The overseer of the academy had assumed Judy would flunk out within the first week of training. But as time had worn on, Judy continued to be at the top of her class. Between her natural swiftness, superb mama control, and her impressive ability for thinking on her feet, she quickly became the overseer's favorite student.
When the time had come to award commissions to the graduates, the overseer had recommended Judy be made a lieutenant immediately. Instead, Judy had almost been dismissed outright.
Her small stature meant her already light mage armor was incredibly weak. The sword she carried was barely a dagger to larger mammals. And though her mana control was better than that of many imperial officers, she could not wield it in a large enough quantity to match larger mammals.
The overseer was insistent though. She was certain that Judy would be an asset to the empire. She had gone so far as to take her case to emperor Lionheart, an old friend of the overseer's. He had been impressed by Judy's tenacity, and granted her his personal support.
With the emperor himself backing Judy, she was officially accepted into the order. But not as an officer. She was assigned the lowest possible rank - initiate. A rank given to pity cases and weaklings. And her duties? She had only one. Patrolling the imperial mage library. Located in the order's headquarters in the capital city. In the basement. Not only that, but she was part of the night watch as well; the token skeleton crew that maintained operations while everyone else slept.
In short, they had given her the most meaningless task possible as her one and only job. Were she to remain here, she would never have a chance at advancement. She would never see combat. She would never make a difference at all.
Despite all these things, Judy was up every evening before her shift, and performed her duties faithfully until her watch ended. She had made friends with most of the rest of the skeleton crew, despite rarely seeing them, and had become fast friends with the imperial librarian, who apparently never slept. The librarian, an aged badger who had been the library's keeper longer than anyone could remember, had offered to help Judy find a way to prove herself to her superiors. He was an old friend of high mage Bogo, the head of security for the capital, and Judy's current commanding officer. The librarian intended to stage a theft of the library's most treasured tomes. Judy would thwart the robbery and chase off the thief. If nothing else, it would remind Bogo that she existed, and perhaps that would be enough.
And tonight was the night. The librarian had told her precisely what time to be there, who the thief would be (a local jackal, actually a baker, but he looked the part), and what to do. The trick was to make all of this look convincing.
Every important imperial structure was constructed with runes carved beneath the floor of every room. Placing the runes beneath the floor protected them from physical disruption, which meant they simply needed to be kept charged to be effective. There were four different runes placed in each room: an alarm, a lockdown, a dispel, and a detonation. The alarm would tell every mage within a set radius there was an intruder or problem, and where it was. The lockdown would generate a mana barrier that would prevent any non-imperial mage from drawing mana, and would drop heavy stone walls over every entrance and exit, even the windows. Imperial mages would still be able to draw mana from the city's ley lines, only accessible to those initiated into the imperial mage order. The dispel would cancel out any current enemy magics. And the detonation was a last resort. If there was an enemy so dangerous that it could not be defeated, any imperial mage could activate this rune to trigger an enormous explosion, which would also simultaneously activate all three other runes.
Judy would need to activate the alarm rune before engaging the thief, as that was standard protocol. The librarian would need to appear incapacitated in some way as well, so that it would be believable that he could not have triggered the alarm himself. Once the alarm was triggered, they wouldn't have much time. The alarm would summon not only the night watch, but it would wake the entire building. Judy would have no more than four minutes at most to 'fight' the intruder, before he would need to make his escape.
The plan was risky. If at any point they messed up, they could get caught. And wasting the time and resources of the imperial mage order was not taken lightly.
But Judy was desperate. She had wanted her whole life to be an imperial mage. Wielding magic against the empire's foes, dispensing justice, helping those in need… Making a difference.
She steeled herself as she descended the staircase into the basement of the fortress. Instead of her usual winding route, she made a beeline straight for the library doors. She placed an ear against one of the enormous oaken doors and listened for a moment. She didn't want to go in until she knew the others were ready.
She could hear the librarian saying something inside. He sounded panicked.
Judy wasn't sure if something had gone wrong or not. She debated whether she should keep waiting or go inside now. Her decision was made for her when she heard the librarian cry, "Wait! Please, stop!"
She threw the doors open with a burst of magic. She drew her blade and shouted, "Halt, fiend! You have trespassed on imperial property. Surrender or face the wrath of the imperial mage order!"
The librarian looked at her with an expression of terror. "Judy, help me!"
The badger was being held up off the ground by a mammal that was too tall to be a jackal. Judy noticed the baker lay unconscious in the corner behind this newcomer.
Judy's pulse quickened. An actual intruder.
His hooded head turned towards her. Glowing emerald eyes gazed out from the shadows of the hood.
A toothy grin grew on his face.
"Well, hello there." Said the fox.
A/N: Wow, look at all that backstory, followed by, like, 3 seconds of character interaction. I am a good author.
Anyway, this is something fun I came up with a little while ago, so I'm just testing the waters with it right now. This will probably be my side project to 'No Right Answers,' so updates may be sparse.