Hunter's Academy (Veller) (61 page)

“No, that’s alright. You just kind of caught me by surprise. How did you know I was there?”

To tell him that his horse, who didn’t really like the name he had given her, told her that he was at Grover’s den would probably make the discussion a little more awkward.

“When you talked about Tree… I… just assumed you were there.”

He nodded, accepting that conclusion, but he didn’t speak for a while as he gathered his thoughts.

“I wasn’t actually there when he died.” He said, and it sounded as if he was apologizing for his action, rather than explaining them. “What you have to understand is that Denal is a very small province when compared to Callor in both resources and finances, and the towns along the border like Grover’s den, rely heavily on both Denal and Callor for their protection. When the uhyre began to amass along the western boarder Lord Warren of the Denal province hired Hunters to escort the people of those border towns to safety. What we hadn’t expected was that the Callor troops that were there supporting the Denal forces would suddenly withdraw, leaving the boarder towns defenseless.

“Tree was stationed at Grover’s Den at that time, but you already knew that. He saw it as his duty to make sure that the people of that town reached safety.
With only the soldiers from Denal to help him, the Hunters agreed to stand alongside him at the breakpoint to slow down the uhyre when they crossed the boarder.

“The
valrik launched several attacks, each on fiercer than the last. They didn’t seem to regard their own lives, much less ours. They just came over the boarder, mindlessly attacking anything in sight. Tree was wounded during the second attack and I tried to get him to retreat with the civilians but he refused. He knew they couldn’t hold off the valrik for long, I’m pretty sure he knew he wasn’t going to survive the night, but I’ll be dammed if he wasn’t smiling all the while. That’s when he gave me his pin, told me to give it to you, told me I had to be at your graduation ceremony because he made you a promise, and he hoped you would understand.

“Since my
… edge… allowed me the most… freedom, I assisted with the actual evacuation, getting as many civilians out of harms way as I could, before the real invasion began. It was… completely… senseless. There was absolutely no point to it. The uhyre overran the lines, ransacked the outposts, burned everything down, killed every living thing in their way and then… they just… retreated back to the wastelands, as if it was… nothing.”

Rick fell silent for a while, staring into the flames of the campfire, poking at it with a long stick and Kile could see the tears in his eyes as he tried to hold them
back; he quickly brushed them away with the back of his hand and forced a smile.

“I went back with the remaining Hunters… but by then…” He just shook his head. “If
Callor hadn’t pulled out, they might have stood a chance, at least better than what they had.”

“Why would
Callor abandon them?” She asked.

“Who knows?”
He said, still staring into the flames. “With the loss of the boarder towns Denal shrinks a little more and Lord Warren’s power along with it. Maybe Lord Rimes saw an opportunity to expand the Callor province without having to lift a sword, maybe he saw no reason in risking his soldiers in a battle he knew he couldn’t win.”

“Maybe he was paid off.”
She suggested.

Rick quickly looked up and she had expected him to scold her for making accusation again the Rimes family again, but the look in Rick’s eyes told her that she
may have hit a mark she wasn’t aiming for.

“Don’t think you’re not the first person that believes that.” He said.

His eyes slowly scanned the clearing around them, as if he was expecting someone to be stepping out of the trees at any minute. It would appear that a lot of people were paranoid these days.

“The very day after the
Callor army pulled out…” He said in a whisper as he leaned over the fire. “…was the day the uhyre attacked. I don’t believe in coincidences. A buddy of mine, a solider in the Callor force stationed at Greenwater was ordered out one day before the uhyre forced overran that place. He says it was just luck, I’m not so sure.”

The talk was treason, pure and simple, whether it was true or false. True, and the treason was placed upon the
Callor army and Lord Rimes for allowing an invading force to enter Aru unchecked. False and the treason was placed upon two hunters sitting in a clearing, speaking out against the cousin of the king.

“We’re just Hunters.” Rick announced. “We shouldn’t be talking
about such things, Politics and governments do not concern us.”

And the haunted look on his face was slowly replaced by the familiar
smile.

“So, you have anything you wish to ask an experienced hunter like myself.” He said with a grin
as he leaned back away from the fire.

“You’ve only been in the wild for three years.”
She replied.

“Oh yeah, but they were a long and eventful three years.” He laughed. “Well, if you don’t have any questions, How about I play you a tune?”

He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a small silver flute and began to play, and to say that he couldn’t play very well was a gross understatement. She must have made a face because he suddenly stopped and looked at her.

“You have a problem with my playing?” He asked, and at first she
thought he was genuinely annoyed.

“Well…” She started to say, not sure whether she should lie or tell him the truth. Neither one would bring her much reward. If she told him the truth he would only be upset and if she lied, he would continue to play.

“Don’t say it, I know.” He said, and he looked at the flute as if the instrument had let him down. “I picked this up with my very first pay, no, this is my second flue, Rain Cloud stepped on my first flue, I don’t think she appreciates good music either.”

“Maybe
that’s why she stepped on it.” Kile replied.

“You’re probably
right; I just can’t get the hang of it.” He said, and he blew into the flute again. It gave out a high pitched shrill. Taiala whinnied at the noise and Grim wasn’t much better, although Kile wouldn’t repeat what the Mountain Pony said, but even she had to cringe at the sound.

“And that was only after three years of practice.” Rick said with pride.

“I use to like the sound of the flute.” She said.

“Then here, you give it a try.”

“I can’t play this; I wouldn’t know where to start.” She said as she took the flute from him. It was about a foot long with more holes in it than she had fingers to cover them with.

“Oh
it's easy.” Rick said as he came around the fire, sat down beside her and showed her how to hold it.

It was a strange experience all around for Kile, one having to hold a flute and secondly having a guy sitting that close to her with his arms around her trying to show her how to hold a flute. Truth be told, she preferred just the flute.
She played the small delicate instrument and managed to make a sound that couldn’t be called music, but it wasn’t nearly as hard on the ears as what Rick had played.

“See, you’re a natural.” He said as he moved over to his own blanket leaving her with the flute.

“Somehow I don’t think so.” She said, trying to hand it back.

“Keep it.” He told her, “Rain Cloud will love you for
it; maybe she’ll even talk to me again. I guess I’ll buy myself a lute next time, what do you think?”

“Talk to you?”
She asks. She looked over at Rick who was now stretched out on his blanket.

“Well, not literally.” He laughed. “But, she hasn’t been as responsive lately. I’m wondering if Grover’s den was too much for her.”

“If you don’t ask me how I know, I can tell you something about Rain Cloud that might help.”

This got Rick
’s attention as he rolled over and looked at her suspiciously.

“Okay
… shoot.”

Now she was in for it she thought, she couldn’t just leave well enough alone. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes
and tried to get everything out as fast as possible before she had time to regret it.

“Her name is Taiala, she’s not very fond of the name Rain Cloud, she doesn’t like your flue playing, she hates the smell of Omna, but she does like you. Good night.”

Kile quickly rolled over on her blanket, pulling it around her so that she was facing away from the fire and away from a rather stunned Rick.

The next morning she awoke to something that smelled wonderful. It took her a few moments to realize where she was and what was happening as she turned over in her bed and saw Rick cooking something over the open fire in a small pot.

“Morning.” He said when he noticed her
moving.

At first she had though
t she had overslept, but it was still dark and the sun wouldn’t be up for at least another hour.

“You’re up early.”
She remarked as she tried to stretch the kinks out of her back. It was true that a good soft bed was no comparison to sleeping on the ground with only a blanket to keep you from the cold earth, but the same could be said in reverse. She realized she was still holding the flute in her hand and quickly slipped it into the courier bag.

-
What's this?-

Vesper asked as he tried chewing on it to see if it was edible.

“Leave it alone, it’s not yours.”

“What not
mine?” Rick asked. He looked around the campsite and probably thought he had taken or used something that belonged to her.

“No not you. I was… oh, never mind.” She said
shaking her head.

It was too hard to explain this early in the morning.

“Well, breakfast is ready, I hope you like it, and don’t worry its vegetarian.”

“
Veggie- what?”

“Vegetarian
… You are a vegetarian… aren’t you?”

“I’m not sure. Am I?” She asked as she sat down in front of the fire and tried to look into the pot. She had never heard of the word before, although she had heard of vegetable and that was what it looked like.

“Vegetarian, it means you don’t eat meat.” Rick explained.

“There’s a word for that?”

“Yeah, what did you think it was called?”

“Most of my friends just referred to it as strange.”

“I’m not surprised. I’ve known you for two days and you have to be the strangest Hunter I’ve ever met.”

“Thank you, I take that as a
compliment.”

“Yeah, I figured you would.” He said as he dished out two bowls full of what appeared to be a viscous green liquid. He handed one to Kile who was a little hesitant to accept it.

“Look, I know I promised, but that stuff about Rain… I mean Taiala, was that true, are you on the up and up or are you trying to play me?”

“Why, did she respond to the name?”

“As a matter of fact she did.”

“So, what difference does it make where I got the information from?”
She replied as she started to eat her vegetarian breakfast. He was definitely a better cook than he was a musician.

“Even about Omna?”

“What is Omna anyway?”

“You’ve never had Omna, oh, you don’t know what you’re missing. Real Omna is made of strips of rabbit stewed with garlic, onions and pepper and rolled in this flat doughy bread, but you have to go to Baala to get it. You can get something similar on this side of the
border but they make it with beef, not rabbit, so it’s just not the same, but then, you don’t eat meat so you wouldn’t like it anyway.”

“No, I don’t think I would, it sounds… horrible.”

“Well, the problem is, you see, it tastes really good, but once you eat it, it sort of upsets the system.”

“
That’s enough.” She said holding up her hand. “I don’t think I want to hear any more, it’s no wonder Taiala doesn’t like it.”

They finished
their breakfast with a bit of small talk as Rick told her about Tree and their days at the academy together. She liked hearing about Tree, and he needed to reminisce about his friend, so she listened to everything he had to say. The sun was already starting to peek over the trees by the time they packed most of the stuff away.

“Okay, let’s see that map of yours.” Rick said as he tied the last bag closed on Taiala. Kile unrolled the map that came with her destination papers.

“No wonder you couldn’t find Coopervill, it’s not even on here.” He said as he crouched down beside the now spent fire and using one of the flat rocks as a table and started to write on the map. “You see, this is where Coopervill is.”

“There’s no road going up there.”
She remarked.

“Well, there is, it’s just not on this map. Here’s Coopervill, here’s Noxton, and somewhere around here is Shrop.” Rick said as he marked a few new locations on the map. “
Coopervill and Noxton are mining towns and Shrop is big in lumber.”