Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (11 page)

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5

Kile was still holding onto the small ebony box, she hadn’t lost it and hadn’t broken it, not yet anyway. It was too small to hold anything of any great value, and what importance could it hold to be entrusted to a cadet. Actually, not even a cadet, not yet… maybe not ever. She was starting to have second thoughts of whether this was all a good idea or not, she was beginning to wonder if she had made a mistake. Did she really have what it takes to be a Hunter? Those lingering doubts were still pounding away at her resolve. She was too far into it now to just quit. If the fates had conspired against her then there was nothing she could do about it, but if she failed, it wouldn’t be because she quit.

She turned the box over in her hands and shook it, but it remained
silent. Whatever was in there was either wedge in there really tight, or the box was empty. She was betting on empty. It only made sense, what could you entrust to a would-be cadet as a final exam but an empty box with the specific instructions of not to open it. It had to arrive intact, unopened and on time. She could only guarantee that it would remain unopened. Everything else was a bit out of her hands.

Kile was dusting off the last
flakes of the drying slim when she arrived at the next door, and her heart nearly stopped, for there, above the door was the grinning face of the oni. She had thought she had left him back at the entrance to the mystic’s tower, but now here he was, still grinning at her with a distorted mockery of her father’s face. She was determined not to look at it as she grabbed the door handle, but one quick turn told her it wasn’t going to be that easy. The door wouldn’t open. She threw her weight into, still diverting her eyes from the oni, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“What force and strength cannot get through, this with a gentle touch can do.”

The hash raspy voice startled her as it echoed down the corridor. She spun around, but there wasn’t anybody there.

“Who’s there?” She called out to the darkness. The light seemed to close in around her, or the shadows were advancing in on her, it was difficult to tell as her hand instinctively gripping the small ebony box.

“I can be found where anything can not lie, Dead men feast upon me, but should the living they would surely die.”

“What? I… don’t understand.” She
said to the darkness.

It had to be one of the mystics she though
t, or was that hoped, because the raspy voice didn’t sound as if it could have come from anything human.

“You hear me before, yet you hear me once more.
Silent do I fall, until again you do call.”

“Okay.” She said slowly as she reached behind her for the door handle, but it was still locked.

“Oh come on, you're really not getting any of these?”

Kile suddenly realized where the voice was coming from as she slowly turned around a
nd looked up to see that the oni was now staring directly down at her.

“Did… you just say something?” She asked it, hoping that it wouldn’t answer.

“Do you see anybody else here?” The grinning face replied, although he wasn’t grinning that much now, he actually looked a bit annoyed.

Kile took a step back.

“I… I need… to get through, could you please open the door.” She asked as politely as she could, not really knowing what else to do. It was not everyday one spoke to a stone effigy, or at least not one that spoke back.

“What force and strength cannot get through, this with a gentle touch can do.”

“Yeah, you said that already, but can you open the door?”

If she didn’t know better, she
would have sworn that the oni just rolled his eyes.

“Is it possible that they
get dumber every year?” He asked himself.

“What’s that suppose to mean.” She demanded, now seizing the courage to take a step forward.

“Haven’t you ever heard of a riddle? What force and strength cannot get through, this with a gentle touch can do.” It shouted at her.

“Oh, I’m
… I’m sorry. I… don’t know… I guess I give up. What’s the answer?”

“That’s not how it works. You’re supposed to give me the answer.”

“But I don’t know the answer.”

“That’s not my problem.” The oni replied with a smug tone as he looked past her down the hall with the same expression he had when she first encounter him.

Kile thought about it for a moment. She hated riddles almost as much as she hated the mystic arts, and here they were combined for her torment. If Leon was here, he would be able to solve the oni’s riddles. Leon loved all sorts of puzzles and teased Kile with them mercilessly. He would often tell her riddles and never reveal their answers, and it used to drive her crazy.

This shouldn’t be that
complicated, she thought, just something to get the cadet thinking. She went back over the ones her brother used to tell her, although none of them sounded anything like what the oni was asking her, but when she broke it down in her mind, the answer came quickly.

“A key.”
She cried in triumph. “That’s the answer to the riddle right, a key.”

“Oh, very good.” The Oni replied, although his grin was not one of admiration, but of contempt. “Maybe you’re not as useless as some think you are.”

Hearing the word useless coming from the mockery of her father’s face was something she hadn’t expected.

“What’s that suppose to mean.” She demanded.

“Hit a nerve did I?” The oni grinned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No, of course not.” It replied with a voice that was more condescending now than anything else. “Useless… and a liar.”

“I’m not a liar.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, I understand.”

“There’s nothing to understand, now open up so I can finish the test.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“I answered your riddle, now you have to open up, those are the rules.”

“Rules?” The oni laughed again and it was a strange harsh sounding laugh, like gravel being dropped into a wooden bucket. “What do you know about the rules? You don’t make the rules here. All you did was figure out that you needed a key to open this door.”

“Then
where do I find this key?”

“Inside of course.”

Inside what she wondered? She didn’t want to give the oni the satisfaction of knowing that she was completely clueless to what he was talking about. This was just another riddle, and the only solution she could come up with was the small ebony box. She lifted it up and gave it shake, it remained silent. If the key was inside, the box wasn’t saying. The only way to know for sure would be to open it, but if she opened it, she would fail the test.

“Not in there.” The oni rattled. “You take things
too literally.”

“Then where is it if it’s not in the box
?”

“The key… is in… you.”

This was even more confusing. At least if it was in the box it would have made some kind of sense, but how could the key be inside her.

The oni sighed, if stone effigies could sigh.

“Only a Hunter can pass this door.” It stated.

“But I’m not a
Hunter.” Kile replied.

“And you’ll never be one.”

Now the situation was making even less sense if that was possible. To pass through the oni’s door, she had to be a Hunter, but she had to pass through the door to become a Hunter. As far as Kile could tell, there was no answer to this particular riddle.

“Useless.” The Oni mumbled in mocking scorn. “You should just give up and run back home. Marry that boy like your father wanted you to do in the first place. Give up every trying to become something you obviously aren’t cut out to be. That is if you’re even allowed back home. What was it that
your father told you upon your departure?”

“Shut up.” Kile said through clenched teeth.

“It was a beautiful essay that you wrote the judges, how much of that was actually true?”

“I said shut up.” Kile shouted this time and she punctuated her command with a swift kick to the door. The pain shot up her foot and she cursed. The oni just laughed his
gravelly laugh.

“I’m a stone carving above a door, did you really
think that that would hurt me you foolish child?”

“It was worth a try.”
She mumbled mostly to herself.

“What does man love more
than life? Fear more than death or mortal strife? What does the poor have that the rich desire? What does the contented man require? What does the miser spend and the squanderers save? What do all Hunters carry to their grave? What do you need to open this door? What do you carry never more?”

The oni recited the new riddle, with every line louder
than the last until the very walls seemed to shake and Kile had to cover her ears. When he finished, she looked up at him.

“Never more?
Isn’t that a little… well… corny.”

“Look you foolish child, I’m trying to help you out. What do you want on the spur of the moment? If you want great poetry, visit the local library.”

“If you really want to help me, just give me the answer, or at least just open the door.”

“Like I would really do that.” The oni huffed. “Think about it child, what does man love more
than life? What does he fear more than death?”

“I don’t know… I guess there are supposed to be things worse
than death, maybe like… becoming a ghost or something.”

“Oh please, now who’s being corny?
”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“What does the poor have that the rich desire?”

“Happiness.” Kile exclaimed.

“Happiness?” The Oni shot back. “You don’t really think wealthy people aren’t happy, or better yet, do you think poor people are happier? You’re not thinking.”

“I’m trying, I just don’t know. I can’t think of anything. As far as I know, there’s nothing that poor people have that rich people want.”

“Thank you.” The Oni replied with a shout to the ceiling.

“For what?”

“For the answer.”

“I said there was...” Kile stopped when she realized what it was she had said.

“Exactly.” The oni replied as he read the comprehension on her face.

That was the problem with riddles, Kile thought. When she didn’t know the answers she felt foolish, and when she finally figured them out, she still felt foolish.

“What do all Hunter’s carry to their grave?” The Oni asked.

“Nothing.” Kile replied.

“What do you need to open this door?”

“Nothing.”

“Leave your burdens, your bags and your past behind. If you truly wish to become a Hunter, you must go to your end with nothing.”

It seemed like a strange concept, but she was willing to play along if it got her past the door. Kile closed her eyes and reached for the handle. She wasn’t sure how she was
supposed to leave all her burdens behind, it didn’t seem like something she could physically do, so she was relieved when she heard the door click and felt it swing open. She clutched the small ebony box tighter in her hand as she passed once again under the oni.

“What can be swallowed, but can also swallow you?” The oni asked after her.

Kile stopped. Was this another test she wondered as she slowly looked above the door she had just passed through. She was grateful to see that the Oni wasn’t on this side as well.

“It’s
… ah…”

“Pride.” The oni shouted in exasperation. “You can swallow your pride or you can be swallowed by it. It’s supposed to be a warning not to let your head get
too big.”

“Look who’s talking.” Kile shouted back.

“Foolish child.” The oni grumbled as the door slammed shut and locked behind her.

She could only hope that that was the last she’d be seeing
of him.

She arrived at the next door without incident, which meant that she either blindly avoided the trap for this area, or she was at the end of the test. She reached for the door but stopped as her hands closed on the knob. This door was similar, if not the same as the door she had just passed through, fortunately there was no Oni grinning down at her, unless this was the opposite sided of that door. Did she somehow get turned around? Did they manage to turn her around? They wouldn’t put her through that again. She turned the knob and gave it a gently push.

The door swung open with ease which she was grateful for, and instead of a pit
or a foul tempered oni, there was a short flight of stairs leading down to a large, dimly lit room. From what she could see, nothing looked out of place or suspicious, which meant everything was suspicious, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down at this point in the game, not if she wanted to get out in one piece. Whatever the mystics had in store for her as the last obstacle, it would have to be far worse than the ones before. At least that was the way she had figured it.