Hunter's Academy (Veller) (46 page)

When she was finally able to leave her cell, many of the cadets were surprised to see her, most had thought that she had either taken the walk of
shame or had been escorted out, even though nobody actually saw her leave. They either stared at her in awe or avoided any eye contact altogether, she was becoming known as the cadet that took down Weapon’s Master. By the time she had reached the Dinning hall for breakfast the tales of the fight had been blown so far out of proportion that it had become some kind of epic tale, a battle that lasted several days with neither side given in, where in fact the entire event took less than ten minutes. It reminded her of the legends that were told about the Great Hunters in the gallery, how many of those epic sagas only lasted ten minutes.

Of course, another reason that a lot of the cadets were staring could have been the yarrow perched on her shoulder. Normally Vesper would have stayed back in the room, but Kile really didn’t care what anyone thought anymore.

She loaded her tray down with fruits and vegetables and took it to her table in the back of the dinning hall. She ate off of one side of the tray, Vesper off the other.

Summer was coming to an end, and the leaves were already starting to change. One more winter, one more spring and Kile would be leaving the academy for her probationary year in… well, where every the guild was going to send her. Tree had once told her that she would call this place a lot of things, but eventually it would become her home, there were so many things that Tree was wrong about.

“How's the head?” Daniel asked as he set his tray on the table.

She was a little surprised to see him as he sat down in his seat beside her as if nothing had transpired between them. She had been a little curt, or
downright rude to him, and he hadn’t come to visit during her week of confined recovery that she feared he might still be angry with her.

“It’s still attached.” She replied as she slid down a bit to give him room. “Look Danny, I’m sorry about…”

“Forget about it.” He said with that lopsided smile. “It’s like I told you before, if you can’t yell at your friends, who can you yell at?”

“Hey Kile Girl, you
’re back.” Alex shouted as he dropped his tray on the table.

She had thought she was over the headache, only to have it return on two legs.

He sat down across from her in his usual seat, he never asked her about her head or the bandage or the fight, to Alex the events of the last month might never have happened. Not even the fact that Vesper was sitting on the dining table aroused any curiosity in the boy, he just took the sliced apple he had on his tray and handed it to the yarrow as if it was a daily routine. Vesper didn’t complain either as he took it over to the far side of the table, out of Kile’s reach.

“You should be eating your own fruit.”
She told him. “Vesper’s doesn’t need any more food, he’s getting fat enough.”

-Fat.-

“Yes, you can hardly fit through that hole behind the dresser these days.”

“I just can’t get
used to that.” Carter remarked as he took his seat at the head of the table.

“How are you doing Kile?”
Murphy asked as he took a seat beside Alex.

“I’ve been better thank you.”

“I bet you can’t wait to get back to training.” Carter laughed. “Should be interesting to see how Master Boraro handles that.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about
it.” She replied.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m not going back to Master Boraro. They set me up with someone else.”

“Probably for the best.” Daniel replied. “Otherwise it would be a matter of who tries to kill whom first.”

“No contest, Kile all the way.” Alex said in a voice that was a bit loud, louder than she would have liked.

“Will you keep it down?” Daniel said in a harsh whispered. “I’m sure Kile doesn’t want everyone to hear you.”

“Besides, I think it was more luck than anything else.” She added.

“Luck, come on girl you kicked his ass.” Alex shouted.

Daniel gave Alex a stern look. “Do we have to medicate you again?”

“Luck or not, you showed some real skill.” Carter commented. “You’re still joining us during practice, aren’t you?”

“Carter’s been dying to spar with you again.” The smaller cadet grinned.

“I have not. I’m… just interested in … her new style
that's all.”

“Is that all
you're interested in?” Alex asked. A question that was answered by a day old muffin as it bounced off his head.

“As fun as this is, I have to get to the stables.” Kile said as she grabbed her tray. Vesper ran up her arm and took his place on her shoulder, still carrying the last of the apple
as Kile stepped away from the table. “I’ll meet you guys back here during the supper shift, good Luck with Master Boraro.”

The stables were as cool during the day as they were doing the night, but she was just glad to be out of sight for a while. The stares from the other cadets, the hushed whispers behind her back as she passed, it was just like the first days at the academy, only the reasons had changed. Back then it was all about her sex, the girl that wanted to be a hunter, now it was all about the fight, the girl that kicked the weapon master’s ass.

As she stood in the vacant section of the stables, she had the feeling she was being watched.
Whether it was Vesper’s nose that detected the presence of someone in there with her, or just the hair that was standing up on the back of her neck, she was starting to take notice. The movement came from behind her, rushing from the shadows, he swung at her head but she was already dropping to the ground and rolled into a defensive stance. Vesper had been smart enough to leap off her before she hit the ground and took refuge under an old stool.

“Not bad.” Luke said as he leaned up against the center post, one of the practice
blades in his hand. “You catch on pretty quick.”

“You could have killed me.” She said as she sat, or fell down on the stable floor.

“But I didn’t.” Luke replied with a shrug. “You were able to detect my movements and avoid my attack.”

“And what if I hadn’t?”

“What difference does it make, you did, and that’s all the matters.”

She would have liked to launch her own attack at him, and if she thought she could get up quick enough without falling over due to her spinning head, she would have tried. Bealer had warned her not to make too many sudden moves while recovering from a head injury.

“So, you’re my official instructor now?” She asked.

“It would appear that way.” Luke replied. “I have been requested to teach you how to fight with the Lann.”

“Well, can we go easy with it today?” She asked as she slowly got to her feet. “I don’t think my body is quite up to it.”

“Yes, you did take quite a beating at the hands of Master Boraro, didn’t you?”

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea.” She replied defensively.

“Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you. It might not have been your idea but you hardly tried to diffuse the situation. You could have yielded after the first time he knocked you down, there was no reason for you to get back up. Your pride may have been damaged but he would have walked away. You instigated the situation until you had no other option open to you but to fight.”

“I guess he just caught me on a bad day.”

“Clearly.” Luke said shaking his head. “But don’t take this victory
too seriously. Master Boraro will not be that easily defeated a second time. You surprised him and he underestimated you, but he is a skilled warrior, and he will not make the same mistakes twice. He has seen how you fought, and he knows the style, and he knows how to counter it.”

“So the… touchy style isn’t better th
an… whatever it was he was teaching.”

“
Tachiena.”

“
That’s what I said.”

Luke sighed, shook his head and walked over to the benches along the wall. For some reason that was a common reaction she received from a lot of the instructors.

“No style is better or worse than another. The Tachiena style differs from the Casacure style that Master Boraro teaches. A master of one would not necessarily be better than a master of another. There are many other factors to be taken into consideration.”

“Such as?”

“The Casacure is a strong style, designed to take down your opponent as quickly and efficiently as possible, it requires great strength but cannot be kept up for very long. The Tachiena is designed to weaken your opponent over a period of time and relies on speed and agility. The Casacure needs to end the battle fast, because he knows that he cannot maintain his skill if the fight lingers. The longer the fight goes on, the more vulnerable he becomes. The Tachiena needs to prolong the fight because he knows that he cannot defeat his opponent when he is strong, it is the onset of the fight that is the most dangerous for the Tachiena since he will have difficulty defending himself from the strong attacks of the Casacure.”

“So the power shifts as the battle goes on.”

“Precisely.”

“But that’s not exactly what happened during my fight.”
She remarked, although she couldn’t remember much of what happened during her fight.

“A battle can be won or lost on a single
mistake; all it requires is for the opponent to see the mistake and to take advantage of it. You switched tactics in the middle of your battle with Master Boraro. You started to fight him using the Casacure style. That was what he taught you, that was what he had expected you to use, and that is what he defended himself against. It was only after you switched tactics that you gained the upper hand, if but briefly. He was unaware that you knew that style, and were more skilled in it than the Casacure. Had he known, he may have been ready for it, and the outcome may have been very different.”

Very different was an understatement.
She had the feeling that, had she not gained the advantage for that brief period of time, she would not be around to talk about it.

“Now, with that settled, I assume you are well enough to at least go over the basics again.” Luke said as he held out the Lann.

“Yes sir.” She said as she took the blades from him.

“You weren’t at supper.” She heard Carter say before she even rounded the corner of the stables. She gripped the practice Lann tightly in her hand. Was he that eager to see her fight again? She wasn’t sure if she was that eager to fight.

“Sorry, training took a little longer th
an I thought, and then I had to catch up with a week’s worth of work that I missed in the stables.”

“Well, come on. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“Oh, come on, give a sec.” She replied as she set the bundled Lann down and sat on the crate beside the wall that had become all too familiar. If there was any one place at the academy that she could call home, it was definitely the stables. “Why don’t you give Alex more time? I’ve seen him fight and he could use a little more training.”

“Oh what’s this?” Carter Laughed. “Chickening out, you fear the great Hausman” He gestured with a flourish of his sword.

“Yeah, that must be it. I also run from falling leaves when the wind blows.” She shot back, although she wasn’t sure if that was a substantial enough come back, but it was all she could think of on such short notice. She was sure she would think of five or six more scathing remarks latter on.

“Trash talk, this is something new.”
Daniel replied as he watched Alex grab the second practice sword and faced off against Carter.

“Just allowing myself some time.”
She remarked as she set Vesper down on the crates beside her. The Yarrow made a bee line toward Murphy who was sitting in the grass pouring over a few old books while eating grapes. He picked off a few and handed them to the yarrow without breaking his concentration.

“You know, a week confined to a bed with cracked ribs and a head injury, and it’s hard to get back into the swing of things.” She remarked.

“Are you in pain?” Daniel asked. “I can probably help you with that.”

“No, leave me my pain. It will remind me
of how foolish I was.”

She had been foolish, even Luke said so. She should have just swallowed her pride and let Boraro think h
e had won and had put her in her place, but it wasn’t that easy. She was not useless. She knew that, at least she thought she knew that. Unfortunately the one person she wanted to prove that to was no longer around to see it.

Murphy groaned as he turned the page
s in the book. Vesper took the opportunity to steal a few more grapes while he wasn’t looking.

“What’s Voreing got you studying now?”
She asked.

“We’ve been revisiting some of the old hunter.” Daniel replied, rolling his eyes. “We’ve actually just finished covering one of your favorites.”

“My favorite?”

“Yeah, you know. Quaineess Nyn.”

“Quaineess Nyn? Why him all of a sudden? It wasn’t like he was one of the greats. His only claim to fame was killing one dragon.”