Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (40 page)

“Show me what?” She asked. She didn’t really want to know all the differences between yarrows and rats.

-Vesper show Kile Winter Feast.-

Well this should be good for a lark she thought, but she was game for anything at
the moment. She sat on the bed and closed her eyes and Vesper took her on a tour through the town. Of course seeing the festival from a rodent’s point of view was a bit unorthodox, but nevertheless it did impact upon her the grandeur of it all. The entire city prepared for this one day, baking breads, decorating cakes, sewing dresses, polishing silver, decorating the halls with colorful paper. She had never seen so much work go into one day, but she still didn’t know why.

“Do you think I should go?” She asked the yarrow.

-Go, fun-

“Easy for you to say.” Kile replied as she got to her feet and grabbed her hat and
cloak. “You behave yourself, no running around, no stealing from other rooms, no getting eaten by cats.”

-
Vesper be good-

She
found it hard to believe him as she closed the door to her room and stepped out into the hall, but she knew if she tried to bring him along, he would only find a way to get her into trouble.

Outside it was like a free for all.
The boys were running around, throwing snowballs, building snowmen; it was as if all rules and regulations had been lifted for one day. That was if Winter’s Feast only lasted a day, as far as she knew it could go on all week. The thought of this chaos extended for a week was enough for her to want to take the walk of Shame. She was halfway to the dinning hall when she heard…

-
Snowball eight o clock-

She didn’t wait to verify if this was true, she just ducked in time as a huge snowball flew over her head. She didn’t even turn around to see who had thrown it, it wouldn’t have done any good anyway as there were several snowball battles occurring simultaneously and to actually figure out who had thrown it would have been impossible. She did look up to see a
black bird flying high above her.

-
Ten-o-clock-

Kile stopped short and leaned back as another snowball just missed her head, somehow she had the feeling she was being targeted. To run was to show fear, of course being hit by a snowball in the back of the head was not exactly an act of courage.
She diverted her course and headed away from where the snowballs were flying and toward where a few of the cadets had gotten together and were using an old shield to slide down the hill that lead up to the stables.

She watched as the black bird flew down around the stable and came in for a landing somewhere on the other side. Kile looked to see if anyone was watching before ducking around the corner.

“Does Morgan want to see me?” She asked Kaza who was preening his feathers.

-Not at the moment-

That was too bad she thought, at least it would have gotten her out of the festival.

“Then what are you doing out here?”

-I do need to fly you know, can’t let the wings get rusty.-

“What do you know about winter’s feast?”

-Oh that, it's another one of those foolish vir holidays where everybody makes merry, gets drunk, falls down and forgets about it in the morning.

“Sounds like a blast. What do you do at these things anyway?”

-Personally, crows don’t celebrate vir holidays.-

“Well, I didn’t really think you did. What do… vir do at these things.”

-Well, from my own personal observation… they make merry, get drunk, fall down…-

“And forget about it in the morning.” Kile finished for him.

-Of course there is the exchanging of tokens.-

“Tokens? What kind of tokens.”

-Oh, small trinkets, little nick-knacks, things like that. There was a time when there was some practicality to the event. Just before the first snowfall the villagers would gather in the town hall or possibly one of the larger homes and they would exchange their wares for thing that they needed to last out the winter. The baker would bring bread and exchange it for shoes from the cobbler or blankets from the weaver. This way everybody got what they needed and nobody had to pay for anything.-

“That explain why we never celebrated it back home. The day my father gave away anything for free or accepted anything without paying for it would be a long time coming.”

-A proud man?-

“I always consisted it, more like… being stubborn, but I guess proud would also do. Does Morgan celebrate
Winter’s Feast?”

-
That old fool, of course he does, he went back to the tower yesterday to celebrate with the croceus.-

“How do mystics celebrate
Winter’s Feast?”

-
They make merry, get drunk…-

“Fall down and forget about it in the morning.” Kile repeated along with Kaza who laughed. She had to admit it was a unique experience to hear a crow laugh.

“You have everything you need back at Morgan’s?” Kile asked. The first time she had met Kaza he was trapped in a cage that had fallen on the floor. She would hate to think of the bird caught in that situation again, with Morgan away.

-
Oh, I’m fine, but I would never turn away some company. There’ aren’t too many people that I can talk to.-

“Then I’ll stop in tomorrow.” She said as she stood up a
nd dusted the snow from her knees.

Kaza picked out one of his feathers and held it out to Kile in his beak. At first she wasn’t sure what he wanted her to do with it, but when she took it he ruffled his wings.

-Consider that you very first Winter Feast’s token, of course in some cultures they are considered bad luck.-

“Bad luck?”

-I think that only applies if you take the feather, I don’t really know how it works if it’s given to you.-

“I guess we’ll find out.” She said as she slipped the black feather into the rim of her ha
t. “But I don’t have anything for you.”

-
Your kindness and your visit tomorrow is more than enough-

Kaza exclaimed as he took to the air.

As she stepped into
the dinning hall she found that it had been decorated with colored paper, streamers and pine branches. It was not as lavish as some of the sites that Vesper had shown her, and she wasn’t sure of the reasoning behind most of it, but it was a welcome change from the drab decor.

“There she is.” She heard Alex’s voice from across the room. At one time that would have made her cringe, but most of the cadets were getting
used to a girl among them and she was getting to the point that she just didn’t care what most of the cadets thought.

“Hey, Kile girl, over here.”

That did make her cringe.

One good sized potato, that was all she needed, she was sure she could hit the little twerp from where she was standing.

“We weren’t sure you were coming.” Alex said as she got closer.

“Keep that up and I’ll be leaving.” She said as she took her seat across from him.

“So, you’ve never celebrated Winter’s Feast.” Carter remarked.

“Oh no, not you too. So I’ve never heard of
Winter’s Feast, is that such a crime.”

“It’s kind of a big day in Procton. Our families always celebrated it together.” Daniel
added. “This will be the first year we aren’t home.”

“My family was never
into celebrations.”

“You didn’t celebrate any of the holidays?
Kalamare, Summer Solstice, Winter’s Feast, Holy Eve, White Moon, none of them?”

Kile just shook her head as Alex rattled off one holiday after another. Not only did she not celebrate them, she had never heard of them before.
How was it that anything got done in Procton with all these holidays?

“How about your birthday. Surly you celebrated your birthday.”

“No.” Kile replied. She must have said it a bit too negatively as both Carter and Daniel turned to look at her. It wasn’t exactly the truth, there was that year that they had celebrated her birthday, or at least her mother tried, but it was a day that she wished to forget, and if she tried to explain it, they would never understand.

“So, how’s our little patient?” Daniel asked. He had a knack of knowing when to stop asking
her questions about her personal life.

“He’s doing great, he up and about already, he asked about you just the other day...”

“He asked about me?”

“Who’s this we’re talking about?” Carter asked.

“Kile got herself a pet yarrow.” Daniel replied. “He was hurt so I help him out, and now it appears to be asking after me.”

“He’s asking after you?”

“You know what I mean.” Kile said. She got so used to conversing with Vesper that sometimes she forgets she’s the only one.

“Why do you want a yarrow for a pet?” Carter asked. “
They're dirty little creatures.”

“For one thing they are not dirty, they are actually quite clean, a lot cleaner
than most of the boys around here, and secondly, he is not a pet, he is free to come and go as he pleases.”

“What’s his name?” Alex asked.

“Vesper.”

“Vesper, that’s a strange name, why did you call him that?” Carter asked.

“Because that’s his name.”

“Well, who gave it to
him?”

“His mother I suppose.” Kile replied, at which Carter slowly looked over to Daniel as if to as
k, is she okay.

“So what are we suppose to do at this… feast?”

The
Hunter’s guild had provided entertainment for the winter’s feast, as limited as it was, a few musicians a mediocre jester and a young mystic doing cheap tricks. The mystic was the first to perform, and it was a good thing that Morgan wasn’t there to see it. The amateur magician had botched just about every trick that he tried to execute. There were cadets in the audience that were more skilled than this man and it seemed like a very bad idea to even allow him to perform. The musicians on the other hand were quite good, or at least Kile thought so, but then she hadn’t had much experience with musician before or music for that matter. That was just another thing on a long list of things that her father had considered a waste of time.

It was the
flutist that had really impressed her. A young willowy woman with long blond hair dressed in a flowing white gown. She played a haunting melody that almost seemed hypnotic as Kile listened to every note. She had always been fascinated with the sound of the flute, ever since the traveling musician came through Riverport several years back. He would sit outside the inn and play the flute to pass the time between drinks, strangely enough, his playing seemed to improve as the day went on. Kile had only heard him one time. It was on that rare occasion that her father had taken them all into town when the winter supplies came in. She remembered sitting on the back of the wagon with Leon as their father went into the dry good store to make a deal with old Fen. The old musician sat in front of the inn and played for hours as people tossed coins into his hat. For the longest time Kile wanted to learn to play the flute, not so much for the money, but just for the pleasure of the music. Of course her father had some choice words about the man when he returned, and maybe that had inspired her even more. If it annoyed her father it couldn’t be all that bad. Unfortunately flutes were not easy to come by in Riverport. If they were, things might have turned out differently; she might never have chosen the academy.

The
flutist finished to a standing ovation, or at least Kile was. She really didn’t know, or care if anyone else had, and judging by the way Daniel pulled her back to her seat, she seriously doubted if any of them did.

The meal was next on the bill of fare, as the cook paraded the turkey through the mess hall to the cheers of the hungry. They were served at
their seats by the cooking staff as the mediocre jester attempted to amuse them, or maybe it was just Kile that didn’t get the jokes, everyone else seemed to be laughing. Low brow humor was never to her liking as she politely applauded his antics. She would even go as far as to say Alex’s jokes were far more original and funnier, even if she didn’t appreciate them either.

For the most part, the meal was good, but Kile still couldn’t bring herself to eat the turkey. The idea that she might have been able to speak with him, or her, was a bit upsetting, or maybe it was the fact that they could speak back. She knew it was foolish since she had always liked turkey, but she was finding that she could survive quite well without meat
in her diet. When the waiting staff loaded up her plate, she just divided it between the boys and stayed with her vegetables. As long as they didn’t start talking to her, she was fine eating them.

After the meal the musicians returned and played a few rousing
numbers to keep the party going. There was talk about clearing the floor for dancing, but when you have only one female student that doesn’t dance and nearly three hundred male students that wouldn’t ask her anyway, the idea died before it ever grew legs.