Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (26 page)

“The what?”

“What’s an Auana… Auya?”

“The Aunyaina.” Master Voreing corrected. “It is a humanoid creature with a dreadful visage.
It is said to be of enormous size, its body covered with fur and it possesses two large tusks that protrudes from its mouth which it uses to hunt down and kill its favorite food… man.”

There
was a notably gasp from the class, something that Master Voreing enjoyed hearing; it meant he had their attention. Kile had never heard of an Aunyaina, or anything that even remotely matched Master Voreing’s description, and if she didn’t know better, she was sure he was making most of the story up, but then Master Voreing was not much for storytelling, or for having much of an imagination or a personality for that matter. He was strictly by the book and if he says it's true, it must mean he read it somewhere.

“The injury put an end to his career, but not his vision. He still saw a place for a group of men to serve the people of Aru by protecting them from the wild. Using the small fortune he had set aside, and the reputation that he had earned, he gathered men of like mind and temperament and formed the first
Hunter’s Guild.”

Kile couldn’t help but noticed how much he used and emphasized the word man, it was becoming a little obvious, so obvious that some of the other cadets would turn to look at her each time he said it.

“Moran realized that it wasn’t enough. There was too much work and not enough men to handle it, and there was a decided… lack of talent to choose from, so Moran set about creating the Hunter’s Academy, an organization to teach men what it meant to be a Hunter.

“Even up to this day, we have strived to meet the high standards that Moran Leafter has placed upon his men, and each class of
Hunters that passes through the doors of this academy, is a shining representative of Moran vision.” Master Voreing stood there posed, with his head back and his chest out, looking very much like one of the paintings in the gallery. Kile hoped she would see her picture up there before his.

“When you become a
Hunter, if… you become a Hunter, there are several duties that you will be required to perform for the Hunter’s Guild. These jobs are presented to the Guild in good faith by the citizen and the government of Aru. They are evaluated by qualified guild members and are classified based on the task that needs to be completed and ranked by difficulty, priority, chance of survival and of course payment. They are then given a classification letter from Class A all the way down to Class E. If you graduate, you will be a Probationary level five Hunters, and therefore will only be assigned Class E missions. As you prove yourself capable and the guild sees fit in promoting you to a higher certification level you will be eligible to take on the higher assignment classifications.”

“What do you mean by probationary, won’t we be certified?” Another cadet called out.

Kile had to admit that it was a question she would have liked to ask herself, and was only glad that someone else beat her to it, not that she was actually going to say anything. Asking questions in class was a direct violation of her master survival plan.

“If you survive your three years here, you will receive your probationary certificate as well as your destination papers. You will have to prove to the guild that you can handle yourself on your own, in the wild, before you receive your certification
, think of it as the ultimate final exam.”

“How long will that take?”

“For most Hunters, it will take a full year, if you don’t do anything that will jeopardize your standing in the guild, then after you complete your one year probation, you will receive your certification, although there are times and certain circumstances where a Hunter has been known to receive their certification earlier, possibly a month or two into their probation.”

“What assignments will we have as level fives?”

“As a certified level five Hunter, your assignments will primarily be that of a courier.”

“A delivery man?” Some called out from the other side of the room, this time Master Voreing ignored the remark.

“As a courier, you will be required to transport letters or packages through non hostile territories to the corresponding guild house. There you will get your signed confirmation of deliver and return back to your own guild house for payment.”

“When do we get to hunt down monster
s?”

“Bounties are automatically labeled as a Class B assignment, and therefore you will have to be at least a certified level three or higher to receive such an assignment, and from what I have seen so far, that’s a long time coming.” Master Voreing replied.

“What other assignments are there?” Another cadet asked.

“Aside from courier duties and bounties, the Guild is often asked to act as bodyguard for political officials, dignitaries, or wealthy merchants in need of protection.
We have often been asked to escort caravans through the wild or hostile territories, or acquire information from …other parties.”

“What about assassinations?”

Kile recognized that voice as she looked over to where Eric was sitting, his arm in the air to attract the instructor's attention, a smug look on his face. Was that why he wanted to be a Hunter, so that he could hire himself out as an assassin?

Master Voreing looked at Eric for a while, or a little longer
than a while. Kile could see that there was a look of concern on the instructor face, something she hadn’t seen before, something that told her the next thing he was about to say wasn’t going to be the whole truth.

“Contrary to popular belief,
Hunters are not assassins.”

“Funny, that’s not what I heard.” Eric replied.

“Well then, you’ve heard wrong. Hunters do not assassinate. If that is the reason you are here, then I am afraid you will be sorely disappointed. Maybe you should look into the assassin’s guild; they’re always looking for new… blood.”

There was an assassin’s guild? That was the first time Kile heard about that, but then it was the first time she had heard about a lot of things. Riverport was never the hub of much information, and what was that
expression on Master Voreing’s face, was he trying to hide something, had the Hunters been used as assassins before?

“I think we should take a short recess, when we come back I will talk
about the political structure of the Aru kingdom as well as some of its key members.” Master Voreing stated as he started to pick up his papers.

This was Kile’s chance to get to the mystics without bringing too much attention to herself, but that wasn’t going to be easy. As she got up to leave she saw Eric standing in the
doorway, blocking her escape. He didn’t appear to be waiting for her; instead he was talking with a few of the other cadets, laughing at something or someone. It was only when he started to leave did he turn to where she was standing. Eric held up his finger and this thumb to create the shape of an L as he laid it against his forehead. His entire hand burst into flame, something that startled a few of the boys around him. It was a clear enough threat as he laughed and walked out the room. Kile waited until the way was clear when she peeked around the door to see if Eric was lying in wait for her. She was relived to find the hall was empty.

There was no denying that Eric had full use of his
Hunter’s edge, and Kile didn’t even know if she had one.

If she was lucky, maybe she was influenced by water, and then she could defuse the next situation with Eric before it got out of hand. What ever it was, if it was any, she was about to find out as she headed out the back of the Hall toward the three round building set aside for the mystics.

Kile knocked on the mystic’s door, but received no answer. It would be her luck for the mystic just not to show up, maybe he knew something she didn’t, of course he could just be asleep. She waited a few minutes and knocked again only a little louder. It was possible that she had the wrong time, maybe she misread the schedule, or somebody changed it on her so that she would arrive late, or early, or on the wrong day all together. That wasn’t a thought that had occurred to her
before; it would not be so far fetched that somebody would try to sabotage her chances of becoming a Hunter. It’s not like there weren’t enough people who wanted to see her fail.

Her only course of action now would be to return to the field and the bulletin board to make
absolutely sure that this was the time that she was supposed to be here. Of course, by doing that, she would be late for the appointment, but then so was he and she really didn’t want to be here in the first place. What was he going to tell her that she didn’t already know? That she had no mystic influence, that she should never have been allowed into the academy and that he had made a grievous error, because that was the only conclusion she could come up with.

Kile turned and was heading back toward the great hall when she heard a noise
from inside the mystics quarters, she couldn’t make out what the sound was, just a loud clatter as if something was being moved. Surely the old man wasn’t hiding inside waiting for her to leave. Kile moved around the outside of the building to the only window, but it was too high for her to peek through, even if she was to stand on her toes, she would need a ladder or a chair to ever have a chance to see through that window. What was the purpose of putting those things so far up the wall anyway?

She waited under the window for
a few minutes, to see if she could hear the sound again, and when her waiting was met with silence, she decided to return to her original plan, to go back to the field and check on the schedule.

She had just taken a few steps away from the building when she heard another, louder noise. There was no mistaken that one, something very large and very heavy had just
fallen onto the floor. Surly the old mystic hadn’t just collapsed. She returned to the door and knocked again.

“Hello is anyone
there. Hello.”

It was obvious
whoever was there wasn’t going to answer, or couldn’t answer. She tried the door, expecting that a mystic’s room, with all its unnatural magic and secrets would be locked, but the door swung open unhindered.

“Hello.” She called again.

It was no use; she was going to have to enter the domain of the mystics one more time. She took a deep breath and stepped into the main foyer.

She didn’t really know what to expect, her few days at the tower had shown her that when dealing with mystics, you couldn’t be prepared enough, but what she hadn’t prepared for was that nothing happened.
There was no magic in the room, there was no energy, there was no feeling, it was just a plain, ordinary room.

It was kind of disappointing as she took a few steps down the narrow hallway that ran the outer edge of the
building. It opened up into a large single room. The first thing she noticed was the smell; it was a heavy perfume or some kind of incense. It was like a thick, unseen fog that had substance and shape, and she physically had to push it aside to enter. Then there was the fact that the room was a complete mess. It was crammed from floor to ceiling with junk. It looked as if someone was trying to open a thrift shop, or possibly the remnants of a century old clean out of one of the castle’s cellars. There was everything from pots and pans stacked up against one wall to a full size skeleton hanging from the ceiling. A Ship’s anchor was leaning up against an old armoire and the head of a creature she could not identify was mounted over the door. There were herbs hanging from one rafter and a net with different size spheres on another, and scattered about were a mixture of knickknacks and curiosities. Book, parchments and scrolls seemed to occupy every flat surface within the room, creating walls of paper that she had to navigate. She had to move a rack that contained an assortment of walking sticks and an old sword to one side and when she turned the corner around a table that had a pile of strange little stone artifacts upon it, she found a bird’s cage lying on the floor with a rather irate crow staring up at her.

-
Aren’t you going to pick me up? -

Kile stopped in her tracks and quickly looked around the room, but she couldn’t see anybody, although with this much stuff there could be an entire platoon hidden and she wouldn’t have been able to see
them. She was sure she heard a voice as she looked back down at the crow. It appeared that they were the only two living things in the room, or at least she hoped they were the only two living things in the room.

“Did you just speak to me?” She asked, crouching down beside the bird that continued to look at her with those dark eyes. “No, of course not.” She said to herself as she grabbed the top of the bird cage and stood it right side up.

The bird fluttered in protest about being moved again, but it settled down quickly and quietly enough. There was water and seed all over the floor, but she had no intention of cleaning that up, that was the mystic’s responsibility, and he probably had some mystic cleaning arts to take care of it anyway.

She looked at the table where the piles of books had slid over and pushed the birdcage onto the floor, or at least that
was what she theorized from seeing the table where the cage must have once sat. Kile rearranged the stack of book to make enough room for the cage and then set it back into place.