Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (25 page)

The sharp sound of the bell jogged her back to reality as Master West vigorously pulled on the rope. She listened for the footsteps of one of the new senior cadets coming down the hall, banging on the doors as he passed to wake up anybody that had slept through the noise, as if that was likely. From her chair by the window she could hear the sound of movement up and down the hall, as well as
overhead as the boys rose from their slumber. She would give them a few minutes; wait until a few of them dragged themselves out onto the field before going herself. It was all part of her master survival plan not to draw too attention to herself, and being the first one on the field every day was definitely counter productive to her survival.

It only took about five minutes before the first boys started to appear, some of them
were still getting dressed as they ran across the compound to be first. Most of them were second or third year cadets, they seemed to have the routine down cold, like her they were probably sitting beside their windows just waiting for the bell to ring. It was some kind of contest for them, to see who would be the first cadet on the field. Today it was some red headed boy who was laughing at another cadet who had fallen while still pulling on one of his boots and trying to run at the same time. There didn’t appear to be any true animosity between them, it was all in good nature, but it was still competitive.

When she saw the first boy she recognized from her class, she got up from her chair and stepped out into the hall to brave the madness.

The dorm harbored it’s usually chaos as each cadet was searching frantically for a missing boot or belt, arguing over who’s got who’s pants and other such nonsense. It was a wonder that they ever managed to get out onto the field at all, let alone on time. Kile moved passed it all as quickly and as quietly as possible, while trying not to get squashed against a wall or bounced down the hall. If her window wasn’t visible from the field, she would exit the dorms that way. The distance was only twenty yards but it took her nearly ten minutes to navigate the mayhem.

When she did finally manage to get out of the building, it was a simple walk across the compound to join the boys on the fields. Here they would stand until everyone was assembled, and one of the senior cadets gave roll call. Anyone who didn’t show up was often retrieved by a few of the other senior cadets in a rather harsh and humiliating manner.
During her first week at the Academy she witnessed one of the first year cadets being dragged half naked across the compound in the field by two senior cadets. She hadn’t seen that boy since, and figured he was probably one of the two that had taken the walk of shame.

It
seemed that the entire morning ritual was overseen by the seniors, the only thing they didn’t do was make the morning announcements, if there were any to be made. That was a job for sir Oblum who appeared rather disappointed when he had to announce the names of the two cadets that had taken the walk of shame last week. Kile wasn’t sure if he was disappointed because he lost two cadets, or because he only lost two cadets, and what if her name had been on that short list. She could guarantee he wouldn’t have been nearly as upset.

After the roll was called and
everyone was accounted for, they were put through sixty minutes of calisthenics before being dismissed to the dinning hall for breakfast. By that time, anything the kitchen cooked was considered a deliciously. Kile retriever her breakfast from the counter and true to her master survival plan, made her way to the back of the room where she sat in the far corner, away from the crowds. At first Alex would join her, but she knew it was more out of pity than companionship, it was clear to her that he would much rather spend his breakfast with the rest of the boys trying to fit in, and she really couldn’t blame him.

She sat in silence and made short work of her toast, eggs, juice and the
gray stuff that came in a small bowl that she has yet to identify. The food at the academy only made her appreciate the food at the tower all that much more. Why was it, that they could recruit a mystic to teach them, but they couldn’t recruit a mystic to feed them?

She finished her meal and took the tray back to the counter, then escaped the noise and confinement of the dinning hall as quickly and as quietly as possible. Once outside she was able to breathe a sigh of relief, she had made it through another breakfast without incident, and she had an hour to herself
before the first of a long series of classes was to begin.

The only place she managed to find any salvation was a small area on the far side of the stables.
She would never dare to enter uninvited, Luke was probably one of those territorial stable hands and she had no intention of crossing him. She wasn’t sure what side of the fence he was on with regards to women at the academy, and she didn’t want to influence his decision by being a nuisance.

She leaned back against the wall,
closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the morning sun on her face, and the smell of pine on the autumn breeze. There was a slight chill in the air, nothing of any great concern, but a definite warning to an early winter. When the bell rang, another one of the cadet’s duties, it marked the beginning of classes, which mean Master Voreing political lectures, not exactly the most stimulating of experiences. She reluctantly got to her feet collected her books and headed over to the Great hall.

Most of the boys were heading in that direction and she just moved with the flow, unfortunately they were not all heading for the same class. Daniel, she knew, had mathematics and Alex had his ethics class today. She would be alone for the better part of the day, even though she was surrounded by so many cadets.

The way Tree had explained it to her was that the first year cadets were usually so numerous that they had to be divided into individual classes. By the time they reached their second year, if they were still around, there would be a lot fewer of them, so fewer classes. She had originally thought that he was exaggerating, but five boys in one month and already taken the walk and that wasn’t counting the two last week, if that kept up, there may not be any of them left by next year.

She walked through the doors into the great hall, and in spite having seen the exhibits each time, and not approving of them, she couldn’t help looking at them again. The grand pictures of the men staring down at her were a bit intimidating. Her eyes then wandered to the simple door that
everyone walked past without a second thought, behind that door the second exhibit was hidden. She kept the key in the small ebony box on her dresser and had thought about revisiting that room, but the timing never seemed right. In her eyes, she just wasn’t worthy enough to be in there to look at her, the mysterious maiden in the painting.

Kile
followed the flow of students upstairs and branched off to her own destination. She stepped into Master Voreing’s room and moved quickly to one of the rear seats. Sitting in the corner as far away from the instructor as she could and waited until the rest of the room slowly filled up as she hid herself behind her political manual, a book more boring than the instructor, if that was even possible.

“So, you
’re still here are you?”

She knew the voice before she even looked, and she knew that the peace of the last couple of weeks had finally come to a crashing end. Kile looked over the top of her book to see the dark greasy haired
boy approaching her with two more in tow. She wasn’t sure why Eric always needed at least two people to support him whenever he tried to confront her, it was almost like he was scared of her, but she couldn’t be that lucky.

“What’s wrong, nothing smart to say?” Eric asked as he placed his hand on her desk and leered over her. “Come on girl, you always have something witty to say, make me laugh.”

This was the last thing Kile needed this morning, or any morning for that matter. She knew it was only a matter of time before Eric remembered he didn’t like her, she was just hoping it would take him a year or two before he got around to doing something about it. As it was she just didn’t have anything to say, as the only thought in her head today was her appending appointment with the mystic instructor.

“I don’t want any trouble.”
She replied, trying not to look at Eric, but keeping her attention to the pages of her book. Master Voreing should be showing up soon, not that it was going to solve anything, but it should prevent something.

“You don’t want any trouble.” Eric repeated in what Kile had to believe was his mocking voice. “You don’t want any trouble because you don’t have that big oaf watching your back now… do you?”

It took Kile a few minutes to realize who it was that Eric was referring to, was he that scared of Tree she wondered. It didn’t matter anyway, Tree was long gone, probably in Grover’s Den by now, and she was here alone.

“Come on girl, you think you’re a
Hunter, why don’t you show me how much of a Hunter you are.” Eric said as pushed her book aside and pointed his finger in her face, and with no more than a thought, if that was even what it took, the tip of his finger began to glow. She could feel the heat radiate from it as she remembered what Daniel had told her, that Eric was influenced by the sphere of fire. He appeared to be a lot further along with his edge than most of the cadets, but then he was two years older than everyone else.

Kile sat in her seat staring
forward; she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of scaring her, even though he was doing a great job at it. If she ran, she would only be proving his point and she might as well keep running all the way to the eastern gate, if she fought him, there was no chance she would win. He slowly moved his finger closer to her face and she could feel the intensity of the heat as well as hear the other boys cheering him on. Could he hate her that much, to do something that severe, something that would get him thrown out of the academy after it took him three years to get in. For a Hunter to use his edge against another Hunter was unthinkable, but that was assuming the instructors didn’t just look the other way.

“Maybe I should just burn a large L on your forehead for looser.”

“Mr. Rimes, what do you think you are doing?”

Eric quickly doused his finger. He didn’t even turn to look at the front of the room where an irate Master Voreing was standing with hands on hips.

“Do yourself a favor girl, take the walk or get burned.” Eric whispered to Kile as he turned and pushed past his two friends.

He took his seat at the far end of the room. Kile could still feel the heat from the boy’s finger and wanted to touch her forehead to see if he had
actually burned her, but she also didn’t want to give Eric the satisfaction of knowing he unnerved her.

“If you’re through holding up my class, I can begin.” Master Voreing said, but he wasn’t looking at Eric, his gaze turned to Kile. She knew
somehow she was going to get blamed for this.

“Yesterday I talked a little bit about the current situation with the
Hunter’s guild, today I thought I should give you a little background on how the Hunter’s guild came about.” Master Voreing said as he paced the floor and began to drone on in his monotone voice that usually put everyone to sleep.

“We learn that the
Hunter’s origin goes back to the early 800s or eight hundred years after the formation of the Kingdom of Aru, although we do not know the precise date we can at least agree upon that fact. We also know that the organization was first started by our founder Moran Leafler. Moran was a man who had a vision to serve the people of Aru, as a young man he sought the adventurous life as he wandered the wilderness. It was his dream to discover the forgotten history of Dalval, to uncover its treasures and its secrets, some even said he was looking for the lost city of Goff. Needless to say he was not very successful in finding either. It is then, that we believe, he turned his attentions to more mundane, if not more profitable, tasks. Utilizing his vast knowledge of the surrounding areas he started to deliver packages from one town to the next…”

“He was a delivery man?” One of the cadets shouted out followed by a few snickers that causing Master Voreing to stop his monologue. He turned to the class and quietly scanned the seats, as if trying to determine just who it was that had the audacity to interrupt him. When he wasn’t able to find the miscreant, his eyes fell on Kile. Fine, she was going to be blamed for that too.

“He was not… a… deliver man. He was a courier, he carried important documents and artifacts to their assigned destination.” Master Voreing explained with a look of contempt.

“A deliver man.”
Another cadet on the other side of the room mumbled, just loud enough for everyone to hear. Master Voreing scanned the room again, and again when he couldn’t find who had interrupted him, he turned his gaze to Kile, and she was getting the feeling that no matter what happened in his classroom, he would somehow find a way to blame her.

“Eventually” He said with a sudden start that caused half the class to wake up. “This would lead him to the escorting of merchants through the wilderness, but it wasn’t until he brought in his first bounty that he found his true calling… as a
Hunter. And he saw that he, as a single individual, could provide a service to the common people, something that they had been lacking, and something that the government of the provinces couldn’t provide. Security in the wild. Unfortunately this was a short lived vocation, as he suffered serious injury while attempting to bring in the Aunyaina.”