Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (12 page)

Kile tapped the top step with her foot, when she was sure it was solid and safe enough, she set the rest of her weight down upon it.
There was a loud snap, and before she could react, the step swung down, creating a short steep ramp that sent her rolling head over heels down into the room below where she hit the floor hard. The small ebony box, still tucked inside her shirt, drove itself into her ribs with excruciating pain. It brought back vivid images of the female with the metal weapon as it cut into her side, the stains upon her fur, the throbbing in her ears the smell of copper, the taste of blood.

“RUN!” She screamed as she opened her eyes, but she was alone.

There were no wolves, they had long fled. All that remained was the pain in her side, and the sicken taste in her mouth. She slowly reached up to push the hair from her eyes, and her hand came away painted in blood. She had hit the ground a lot harder than she had first thought. Did she knock herself out she wondered, and if she did, how long had she been out for?

Kile quickly got back to her feet, which was not the best thing to do with a head injury. The room started spinning wildly and she fell against the wall sliding back
down to the floor. She closed her eyes until she was sure the room had stopped moving. She reached into her shirt, thinking she was going to be pulling out the splintered remains of the ebony box she had just landed on, but the box was still intact. What really annoyed her was that there wasn’t a mark on it. She may not have broken the box but it nearly broke her, at least it could have the decency to be scratched or dented.

The way she had come was now no longer accessible, not that she had any intentions of turning back, but this was a sure enough way of saying ‘you can’t go back’. She couldn’t climb that steep
slope even if she still had the little butter knife. Was this just a simple parting shot or had she finally gotten careless and fallen into one of the traps.

Kile
undid her makeshift pouch. The only things she had left was the wedge of cheese, some rolls, and of course the cloth napkin. She wasn’t very hungry although she did eat one of the roll, and the napkin would serve a purpose as she wrapped it around her head. The wound wasn’t bleeding much, but she couldn’t tell how bad it was without looking at it, and it was always better to be safe than sorry.

She got to her feet, slowly this time, and surveyed the room. It was large and it was empty, which pretty much described most of the places in the mystic tower. The room wrapped around itself, more like a large
horseshoe hallway rather than a true room, and as she rounded the corner, she found something she hadn’t expected to see.

It might not have been a dragon’s hoard, nowhere near that much, or so the stories would lead
one to believe, but it was more wealth than she had ever seen in one place in her entire life. There were open chests of gold and silver against one wall, and on the other were scattered fineries such as silks and jewelry, golden goblets and silver plates. She stood there in awe at the riches that were laid out before her and thought of the possibilities. Any one of these items could feed her family for the next ten maybe even twelve years. The wealth would go a long way in rebuilding the farm, her father could buy the land from Oric Tallon outright, and she wouldn’t have to marry Pordist. He may even go as far as to acknowledge that she had done something right and allow her to return home.

There was nothing in the rules that said she couldn’t leave the test with a little extra in her pocket, the problem was, what little extra. Silver was good, but gold was better, although you could stuff all your pockets and still want more. Jewelry was probably the easiest to carry and conceal and was usually worth more
than its weight in gold but you would have to be an expert or at least more knowledgeable in the jeweler’s craft than she was to know what was worth it and what was worthless. She could easily pick out a worthless piece of glass as she could pick out a priceless gem.

As Kile looked around the individual piles, she spied one piece off on its own. In the center of the room was a red ruby the size of her fist. Even she could see the value in that piece, and it was small enough that she could tuck it away inside her tunic without it slowing her down.

She approached it cautiously, still weary of any traps that might have been laid for the prospective thief, and it wasn’t until she stood right in front of it that she was convinced there was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to prevent her from taking the ruby, in fact, the ruby appeared to be brighter and more dazzling than before. It was almost calling out to her, begging to be taken from this dark hole beneath the ground into the light of day.

She was just reaching from the gem when a small brown mouse shot out from behind one of the chest
s. It ran across her path and through a small crack in the wall on the opposite side. Kile jumped back, and in spite of herself, actually shrieked. It wasn’t that she was afraid of mice. She had never harbored any such fears. It was just the sudden appearance of one completely caught her off guard, at least that was what she told herself. She had not seen any sign of life since the test started, that is if you don’t count the oni, and she wasn’t sure if he was actually alive or not, so to have something running past her like that was a bit unexpected. She scolded herself for being so jumpy, and when her heart stopped racing, she reached for the ruby again, and again the mouse made its appearance. It shot out from the hole in the wall and this time ran over her left foot before disappearing behind one of the chests. Kile still jumped back, but this time she refrained from making any noises.

“What is the matter with you?” She asked the mouse, although the mouse wasn’t there at the time, so she was actually addressing the chest of gold. When she received no answer from either chest or mouse she just shook her head in disbelief and reached for the gem again, and again the mouse came running out from its hiding place. This time it didn’t go for her, it went for the ruby. As the
mouse struck the gem there was a sudden flash of red light that engulf the small rodent who suddenly stopped, but not just stopped, it appeared to actually freeze in mid stride.

Kile quickly withdrew her outstretched hand and took a few steps back to examine the situation a little more carefully. She even got down on her hands and knees to look at the scene from the rodent’s point of view. What she found confused her even more. The mouse had indeed stopped in mid stride and was not moving, not even to draw a breath. It looked like a little taxidermy project.

The mouse was moving up to the point that it had come in contact with the ruby, therefore, she reasoned, the ruby had to be the trap. Kile looked around the room. She needed something to separate the mouse from the gem, she couldn’t just leave the poor thing there, it had, after all, sacrificed itself for her.

Her first
thought was to use one of the golden goblets since they were close at hand, and she was actually reaching for it before she stopped herself. What if everything of value in the room produced the same effect or possibly worse? It was a sure enough way to stop a thief, but more likely it would guarantee she would fail the test. That meant nothing in this room could be trusted, anything could be a potential trap. The only things she could trust was the stuff she was carrying, which were limited to a wedge of cheese, a few rolls and of course, the small ebony box.

She took out one of the rolls and balanced it in her hand. It had a good weight and was fairly
stale as she curled her finger around it.

“Sorry about this little guy, but I don’t know what else to do.” She said and she threw the roll at the mouse. It was like skipping stones across the lake or playing marbles, or
possibly a combination of both. The gem went one way, the mouse went the other and the roll shot down the center. When everything came to a rest, she ran over to the mouse and picked it up gently. There was no motion or life within it and she thought that maybe the gem had actually killed it, or possibly turned it to stone, or maybe the stale roll had done it in, but as suddenly as it had stopped, it started moving again.

“Whoa, easy there, I’m not going to hurt you.” She said as the mouse struggled to escape. She gently set it back on the ground. The moment its feet touched the stone floor it was off again. It shot across the floor and between the chests of gold and was gone.
There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with him Kile though as she took the wedge of cheese from her tunic and placed it between the two chests. Whether the mouse knew it or not, it had saved her life, well, maybe not her life. There wasn’t anything really life threatening about the test, but if she had picked up that gem, she would have been frozen there instead of the mouse and there wasn’t anyone around with a large enough roll to throw at her. That would have been the end of the test. You can’t finish in time if you can’t move.

Kile looked around the room one last time, she wasn’t sure if the other items were equally as enchanted, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. She may have briefly seen what she
thought was the solution to her problems, but she also saw the folly in it. Nothing comes that easy without a price. It was the trap of temptation and she had almost fallen for it, she was beginning to second guess her motives. Was this what the oni meant by being swallowed by her pride? The thought of returning home after stealing victory from the edge of defeat was intoxicating.

She followed the room around to a wide door that was already open, the red ruby was sitting silently against the jam.
It was still a very tempting item as it sparkled in the shadow of the door. She was starting to think of a way around the enchantment and even began to move toward the ruby when she caught herself. Was she that naive or just that foolish? There must be other enchantments on the ruby, something to make it more desirable she told herself, it was either that or she really was being foolish. She left the treasures behind without looking back.

No sooner had she entered the next room when she heard the sound of stone grinding on stone which such forced that it stopped her cold. She quickly looked around for anything out of place, anything that looked as if it would fall on her or out from under her. From where she was standing the room looked solid enough, and
surprisingly, quiet enough. At first she thought maybe she was hearing thing, maybe she was getting a little jumpy. There was no sound whatsoever, nothing. It was almost eerie when she thought about it. She hadn’t really noticed the silence before now since she was too busy avoiding traps, but now that she was actually listening to it, she found it a tad bit uncomfortable. She took a step and as she did the sound filled the room once again. How she ever entertained the notion that it was a figment of her imagination was beyond her as the noise vibrated through the stone floor. It was definitely something heavy and not that far away With every step the young girl took the sound of the stone grinding got louder, it wasn't until she turned the corner did she find the source of the noise.

Two of the largest doors she had ever seen dominated the far wall, towering over the room. Each one had to be over thirty feet in height and as wide as three men lying down. They were comprised of the same stone that formed the walls, and had they been closed, they would have been impossible to open. Giving the grandeur of the size, this had to mark the end of the test, she had finally made it. Of course she had believed that about the last two tests and was proven wrong.

Kile took the small ebony box from her shirt. It was still in one piece, it hadn’t been opened and it looked as if she was going to get it to its destination on time.

She started toward the opening, and as she did the grinding got louder and the large stone doors began to move. It was hard to see what was happening in the dimly lit room, but it wasn’t hard to figure it out, the doors were
starting to close. She must be running out of time which meant she had less time to finish the exam than she had originally thought. Kile began to pick up speed as she ran toward the exit, but the faster she ran the faster the doors began to close. She was about half way home when her foot caught on a rough section of the floor and she found herself sailing through the air and coming down hard on her knees The ebony box sprung from her hands and bounced across the floor, the doors were now about three quarters of the way closed when everything stopped. The eerie silence returned.

She kept still, waiting for the door to start closing again, but nothing happened. The doors were no longer moving, the box was no longer moving, and she was no longer moving. Kile held her breath and slowly began to crawl toward the box, always keeping one eye on the large stone doors. She was getting closer and still the doors remained silent. It didn’t make much sense but she wasn’t going to question it yet. When she reached the box she picked it up and gave it
a quick once over. There didn’t appear to be any damage done, which really didn’t surprise her much. At this point she was beginning to believe that nothing short of a dragon’s breath would destroy it. She clutched the box against her chest, took another deep breath and began to inch her way forward, as she did the familiar sound filled the air and the doors began to close again. When she stopped, they stopped.

This was starting to get weird she thought as she set the box down, she took a few steps toward the stone doors. To her relief the doors didn’t move. She took a few more steps and still the large stone doors remained
quiet. She went back to retrieve the small ebony box, but this time when she advanced forward, the doors started closing again. She quickly retreated. Unfortunate the doors didn’t open any wider. She had to think as she sat on the floor and stared at the only exit from the room.