Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (41 page)

When Sir Oblum took the center stage, they knew that the festivities had come to an end, or at least for that night. He gave a moving speech, which nobody listened to, and thanked the performers for their performance.

“So, that was it.” Kile remarked as she watched the musician pack up their gear and some of the cadets started to shift the tables around to prepare the dinning hall for the night.

“Pretty much so… yeah.” Alex replied.

“Traditionally the party goes on all night, until the wee hours of the morning when everyone would go back home and sleep it off.” Daniel added.

“Sounds productive.”

“It’s not suppose to be.” He laughed. “The whole purpose of winter’s feast is to celebrate the longest night of the year, and what better way to celebrate it than to stay up and make merry.”

And get drunk, fall down and forget about it in the morning.

“Well, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be too much more celebrating tonight, they’ve already started to lay out the bedrolls.”

True to Carter’s words, the cadets had already started to lay out the rolls and blankets for those that would be spending the night in the mess hall, and given the number of blankets, it looked to be most of them.

“We can always go back to the dorms.” Alex suggested.

“What, and sit up in the cold, no thank
you.” Carter replied.

“Some of the senior cadets are gong to start a bonfire in the field, maybe we can check that out.”

“Where did you hear that?” Carter asked.

“Around, I have my ways.” Alex replied, and Carter dismissed him with a wave
of his hand.

“Your ways are no ways, there’s probably no truth to it.”

“Even if there was, I don’t think we’re invited.” Daniel added.

“How would they know?” Alex asked.

“You’d be a dead giveaway squirt, they’d take one look at your and say there’s no way somebody like that ever became a senior.”

“If you really want to stay up all night… we can do it in my cell.” Kile said reluctantly. She didn’t really want to give up the secret of the gift that Morgan had given her, but it was the least she could do given the fact that they did want to include her in
their traditions.

“What difference would that make?” Carter asked.

“You’ll never know sitting here.” Kile remarked as she grabbed her cloak from the back of her chair. “Either way, I’m going back to my cell.”

Kile pulled her hat down over her head and headed for the back door of the dinning hall. The longest night of the year proved to be the coldest, or so it felt as she pulled her woolen
cloak tighter around her shoulders and stepped out into the snow. She had only gotten as far as two steps when Daniel came up behind her.

“Hold up.” He called out.

It was too cold to be standing around in the snow wearing boots that didn’t keep the water out. Who made these things anyway she wondered, it was obviously someone that had never seen snow let alone have to stand round in it.

“What?” She called back as she continued to stomp through the snow. The top layer had frozen over and she was having a difficult time breaking through to get a decent footing. Daniel on the other hand had no problem, but then he did weight more
than she did.

“Does th
at offer still stand?” He asked as he walked beside her.

“What offer was that?” She asked suspiciously.

“A room to carry on the celebration.” He laughed. “What did you think I meant.”

“How would I know what I thought you meant, just walk ahead of me.” She said as she pushed him in front of her
and followed in the path that he created. “What about the others.”

“Chores.” Daniel said as if the word told the whole story. “Carter still has the dinning hall to clean up and Alex is still helping in the kitchen, they’ll be down a little later.”

“And you don’t have anything?”

“I served my time in the healers’ halls this afternoon.”
Daniel replied. “What about you, what did you pull this month?”

“Ground maintenance.” She
laughed. One cannot maintain the grounds while it was covered with snow, and snow removal was someone else’s job that month, it was the guild mentality at work.

When they reached the dorms Kile took the lead as she opened the door to her room.

“Wipe your feet.” She said as she took her own boots off and set them in the corner to dry.

“Yes ma’am.” Daniel replied behind her.

“This door has two sides, what side do you want to be on?”

“Only kidding.”

“Yeah, you say that now.” She remarked as she lit the candle. Vesper was back from his exploration, if he even went out that afternoon. She couldn’t tell where he was, but she knew he was somewhere in the room.

“If you don’t mind me asking.” Daniel said as he took his own boots off and stood them beside Kile
’s. “What makes your room any better than anyone else’s?”

“This.” She said as she tossed the small metal box to Daniel.

“And this is?” He asked, turning it over in his hands.

“Open it, but make sure you don’t touch what’s inside. You want to keep it
upright, open the lid and lower the box out from under it. I found that works best.”

As skeptical as he was,
he did as she instructed, as he lowered the box, the sphere of fire hovered before him, and the room began to heat up quickly.

“Where did you get this?” He asked in astonishment as he gave the box another look before setting it down on the table. He walked slowly around the globe holding his hands out toward it to feel the heat. “You did this, you found your
Hunter’s edge?” He remarked.

“As if.”
She replied.

S
he was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t true. Portable heat would be a great edge to have on those cold nights in the wild, but she could never take credit for something that grand, Daniel would want to see her create another one.

“Morgan gave it to me.”

“No wonder why you don’t sleep in the hall with everyone else.”

“Believe me, that’s not the only reason I don’t sleep in the hall.”

-Healer here?-

Kile turned around to see that Vesper had come out of hiding and was now sitting on the small ebony box that sat upon the chest of drawers. She really didn’t expect the yarrow to make an appearance, as he was usually suspicious of other people, but he appeared to be eager to see Daniel.

-Want to give Healer gift.-

“What gift?” She asked, forgetting Daniel was even there.

“Sorry?”

Daniel turned around and saw Vesper sitting on the top of the dresser. “There he is,” He said as he got closer. “He looks a lot better
than the last time I saw him.”

“I should hope so.” Kile replied.

-Gift for Healer.-

This was going to get awkward fast Kile thought, but there as no other way around it. Vesper could be very stubborn when he wanted something.

“He has a gift for you.” Kile replied.

“Does he now?” Daniel grinned.

Great, now what is he thinking.

Vesper jumped down the back of the dresser and she could hear him in the bottom drawer. It wasn’t until recently that she learned that yarrows were quite similar to
packrats. It would appear that anything Vesper found that caught his eye wound up in the bottom drawer of her dresser. She had to search it on a regular basis, the last thing she needed was for someone to accuse her of stealing. She had already found a few personal objects. Those that she could identify went back to their owners, quite anonymously, those that she couldn’t, were left with instructors, labeled as being found.

“Where did he go?” Daniel asked as he tried to look down the back of the dresser.

“To get your gift I suppose.”

Daniel gave her a
curious look, he was about to say something more when Vesper shot up from the back of the dresser startling him. The yarrow sat up on his hind legs and held out a small gray and white marble.

-
Gift… thank for make well-

“It’s a gift for healing him, he’s thanking you.” Kile translated.

Daniel carefully took the marble from vesper.

“Thank you.” He replied, a bit confused, although she did like the fact that he actually thanked Vesper and not her.

“Vesper, where did you get that?” She asked in a gentle and calm voice. She couldn’t just stand by and ignore the existence of the marble. She wouldn’t want Daniel caught with it if somebody was looking for it.

-
Found-

“Where?”

-Street-

“
Where on the street?”

-
Near house-

“There wouldn’t happen to have been more of them just lying in the street now would there?”

-Just that one-

This time Vesper gave her the image that she wanted. She could see the marble lying in the street unclaimed through the yarrows eyes.
Some boy probably lost it, and for her to try and find him would be next to impossible, she wasn’t even sure how long the marble had laid there.

-
See-

“Okay, I’m sorry I doubted you, but you have been known to find a few things before they were lost.”

“Kile, were you just…”

“Don’t ask.” She said, holding up her hand. She didn’t feel like explaining it, and
fortunately she didn’t have to as she was saved by a knock on the door.

She reached
for the metal box to douse the heat, but Daniel stopped her.

“Who is it?” He called out.

That was great planning on his part Kile thought as she rolled her eyes and flopped down on the bed. Trying to explain the heat source was one thing, trying to explain why there was a boy in her room after lights out was something entirely different.

“Who do you think it is at this hour?” Carter shouted through the crack in the door.

Daniel pulled open the door a little and Carter quickly slipped in, at first Kile thought it was because he didn’t want to be seen entering her room. She was still cursed in the eyes of the rest of the class, but when she saw what he held in his hands, she realized why he was being so secretive.

“Here, I nicked this from
the … damn its warm here.” He said looking around the room until he caught sight of the floating globe.

“Take your boots off and put them in the corner.”
Daniel instructed as he took what appeared to be a bottle from Carter’s outstretched hand.

“What’s that?” Kile asked.

“Mead I think?” Daniel replied as he popped the top and gave it a sniff. “Yeah, it’s mead.”

“What are we going to do with that?”

“You drink it of course.”

The Drinking of alcohol or strong sprits was another thing on Henry Veller’s long list of wasteful endeavors, for as long as Kile could remember she had never seen her father drink anything stronger
than pine juice.

“Where did this thing come from?” Carter asked, ignoring the mead and concentrating on the floating globe of fire.

“Kile made it.” Daniel said.

“You did!” Carter exclaimed, turning on Kile.

“I did not.” She shouted. “Morgan gave it to me.”

“He never gave me anything like this.”

“He probably doesn’t like you as much.” Daniel added.

“I will put it away if you keep harping on it.”

“Hey Carter. Where did you get this anyway?” Daniel asked, holding up the bottle.

“Oh that. As I said I nicked it on
my way out of the dinning hall after setting up. There were still a few bottles sitting on the Staff table. I doubt anyone will miss one.”

“I should hope not.”

Another knock on the door caused the conversation to die quickly. Kile held out her hand to silence Daniel before asked who it was. If she found it hard to explain the heat in her room, and nearly impossible to come up with an explanation for one boy, what was she going to say about two.

“Who is it?” She called out, the small metal box still in her hand.

“It’s me; can you guys give me a hand here?”

Daniel pulled open the door and Alex stumbled in, carrying a rather large sack.

“I had to lug this all the way from the kitchen.” He said as he put it down on the table. “And why is it so warm in here?”

“Oh, didn’t we tell you? We invited Eric. He’s using his edge to warm the room.” Carter replied.

“Are you serious?”

The expression on Alex’s face was comical as he quickly reached for the door.

“No, of course not.” Daniel assured him.

“So, what did you steal?” Carter asked as he
started to open the sack. Alex pulled it away from him. “I didn’t have to steal anything.” He said as he started to unload a quantity of food. It was a hodgepodge of breads, cheeses, cold meat, and fruit, there was even an assortment of pastries wrapped in cloth.

“How did you get a hold of all this?” Daniel asked.

“The cook gave it to me.”

“The cook did not just give you all this food.” Carter laughed as he started to lay it all out.

“Yes he did.” Alex replied defensively.

“What did you tell him?”

“While I was helping him clean up, he asked me if I had any plans for the rest of the night. I told him we were all going to hang out in Kile’s room. Then he said you couldn’t have a party without something to eat and started to fill up the sack.”

“Image big Joe having a heart.” Carter remarked.

The impromptu party lasted well into the night and even ventured into the wee hours of the morning, but not by much. They ate the food that Alex had brought, drank the mead that Carter had stolen and even sampled the peppermint imps that Kile had kept hidden, all the while telling stories about
their individual childhoods, or in the case of the boys, about each other’s childhoods. Kile for the most part listened, although she did have a few tales to tell about growing up on a farm in Riverport and she even told them about the time she first met Erin Silvia. Alex then regaled them with a story of his own, based upon the exploits of the famed Hunter Doran Boach, slayer of goblins and rescuer of damsel in distress. It played out before their eyes on Kile small table as Alex provided both the illusion and the narrative. How much of it was actually true, he didn’t know and they didn’t care, although Kile did add to the story from what she learned from the books that Master Adams had provided, and a credit to his creative ability, Alex was able to seamlessly weave the new information into the storyline, well, almost seamlessly. There was a moment when he had lost concentration and Doran Boach fought off five Goblins wearing a pink dress and wielding a chicken leg. Somehow Kile was sure that the drink had gotten to the smaller cadet.