Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (29 page)

She grabbed another potato from the pile and started to peel. Peeling potatoes wasn’t anything new to her, she had peeled potatoes back home and she could do them fairly quickly. It was all in the wrist, especially if you had a good sharp knife, and the kitchen was well stocked with those. The staff had gone home long ago, the sun had even gone home long ago, and the kitchen was a rather cold and lonely place. Was it worth it she kept asking herself, and each time she would answer the same way, hell yeah.

Just the look on Eric’s face as he got hit in the back of the head by a flying baked potato was enough to keep her going.

The pile of potatoes didn’t appear to be going down but the ones she peeled did appear to be growing, so somewhere in the middle she was making progress. She was determined to prove to Master Boraro that she wasn’t going to be broken
so easily, she was determined to peel every last potato if it took her all night, and by the looks of the pile they had given her, that's exactly how long it would take.

The cook, a man by the name of Joseph Spece, or big Joe as most of the kitchen
staff called him, felt bad about the incident and even apologized to Kile on more than one occasion, although she was not sure why he was apologizing. He was even willing to stay behind and help her but she couldn’t let him do that. He didn’t make her throw the potato, she enjoyed throwing the potato, and he shouldn’t be punished for it. He was a good man, a very large and round good man with a chubby face and a receding hairline, basically what she had pictured the Kitchen’s cook to look like. In fact all the kitchen hands were rather decent people who agreed she got a raw deal for this one incident, the only thing she felt bad about was insulting their food.

She filled the bucket, picked it up and took it back into the kitchen w
here the potatoes were dropped into an even larger bowl, there to sit until tomorrow’s breakfast. She then refilled the bucket with more water from the pump and took it back to the potato room were the whole thing started all over again.

Kile sat down, grabbed another potato and was about to start peeling when something shot out from under the pile and ran to the far
side of the room. She knew the sound, she knew the shape, she had been born on a farm, and she knew a rat when she saw one.

“Oh wonderful.” She said as she dropped the peeled potato into the bucket. “At least it company.”

It didn’t move around the outer perimeter of the room, nor did it stay close to the walls, as rats do, instead the furry little rodent came out, away from the shadows, sat in the middle of the floor and stared up at her. She had never seen a rat like this before. It wasn’t anything like the rats back home in the barn. For starts it was a soft grayish white in color, with rather large, oversized ears, each one crowned with tufts of hair. Its tail was as long as its body and ended with a small white ball of fluff that it seemed to wag from side to side.

She cut off a piece of the potato she was peeling and tossed it to the rodent.
It ran over to it, picked it up with its front paws and began to eat.

“I’ve never seen a white rat before.”
She said as she dropped the rest of the potato into the bucket. She was answered with a series of irate squeaks.

-
Yarrow -

“Sorry, a yarrow.”

- No see here -

“That’s because this isn’t what I normally do.”

- What do? -

“I’m trying to be a
Hunter.”

-
What Hunter -

“You know, hunt for this hunt for that, most of the time it sounds like a glorified letter carrying service.”

- Boring -

“Well yeah but….” Kile stopped in mid sentence and looked down at the yarrow who was watching her with interest.

“Did you… just… ask me a question?” Kile asked the yarrow, who cocked its head and continued to look up at her.

“Am I actually carrying on a conversation with a rat… sorry a yarrow. What is a yarrow anyway?”

- I yarrow -

“Well I figured you were, otherwise you wouldn’t keep telling me you were… you did just tell me didn’t you? How do you know how to talk?”

- Talk? -

“You are talking aren’t you… or am I completely
losing my mind.”

-
Losing Mind -

“Are you agreeing with me or asking me?”

Kile didn’t wait for an answer as she got up from her stool, walked into the main kitchen and splashed her face with the cold water from the pump.

“I must be asleep.” She told herself as she looked out the window. It was dark, well past her bed
time. Maybe she had just fallen asleep. She could be lying on those potatoes right now, fast asleep. She splashed some more water on her face, no, unfortunately she was awake. Kile walked back into the potato room but the yarrow was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was just falling asleep, that would have made more sense, and then the whole concept of talking to a rat had been the remnants of her imagination. She sat down, picked up another potato and began peeling, always keeping an eye towards the wall, but the yarrow never returned that night.

***~~~***

11

The sound of the bell was an unwelcome noise as Kile opened her eyes, the pounding on the door by a senior cadet was even worse. She scrambled out of bed and fell on the floor as she got caught up in the bed sheets. The last thing she wanted was for two senior cadets to come into her room and drag her out across the compound because she missed roll call. Kile ran to the window and was grateful to see that nobody was in the field just yet. She went into the lavatory, splashed some water on her face and ran a comb through the tangles of her hair, then looked at herself in the small mirror and sighed. Yes, that was the face of someone that had been up all night peeling potatoes. She could barely remember dragging herself back to her cell let alone falling into bed. She hadn’t changed, she was still wearing the same academy browns she had on the day before, but unfortunately there wasn’t time to amend that. Maybe she could slip in around lunch time and get some fresh clothes.

Straightening herself out the best she could she pulled open her cell door and headed out into the hall. She was glad to see that there were still quite a few freshmen cadets rushing around half dressed as she pushed her way through the chaotic mob. Once outside she paused and took a deep breath, the cool air woke her up a bit more. It would not do for her to look harried, why give them the satisfaction she thought as she calmly walked across the compound. She took her place on the field and waited for the rest of the cadets to show themselves.

The roll was called, the calisthenics were inflicted and when they were finally dismissed for breakfast she had serious doubts she was going to make it through the day. As she entered the dinning hall she watched the boys pushing each other out of the way to get to the food, and realized she wasn’t as hungry as she thought she was. She turned around, walked out and made her way to her secluded little spot behind the stables where she sat in the sun, closed her eyes and soon lost her battle with sleep as she dozed off, although she didn’t sleep for long.

“Hey, get up.”

Kile slowly opened her eyes and saw a familiar shadow looming over her, two more figures stood behind him, this was the last thing she needed today. Without a second thought she lashed out with her foot, making contact with the boy’s shin. He cursed as he hopped back away from her, dropping whatever it was he was holding. Kile quickly rolled to her feet and pressed her back against the stable wall as she prepared herself for whatever was coming next, but all she heard was laughter. It took her a moment to wake up completely and figure out what was going on.

Daniel was sitting on the ground rubbing his shin, Alex was doubled over laughing and Carter was leaning against the wall at a respectable distance, a huge grin on his face.

“Daniel I’m sorry.” Kile exclaimed, but then almost broke out laughing herself at the sight of Daniel sitting on the ground trying to use his healing arts to alleviate the pain.

“My fault.” He said as he looked up at her. “I probably should have approached that a bit differently.”

“Yeah, from like ten feet away.” Carter remarked. “I did warn you.”

“I know… I know.”

“You alright?” Kile asked, but she really wasn’t all that concerned, in many ways he deserved it.

Daniel picked up the apples he had been carrying and polished them on his tunic before tossing them to Kile.

“We noticed you missed breakfast.”

“Thanks.” She said as she
turned the apple over in her hand. “But why the sudden change?”

“That was Alex’s doing.” Daniel replied, looking a little embarrassed. “We wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday… and say we’re sorry.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kile said calmly as she took a bite of the apple.

“Look, I have Mr.
Voreing this morning, and I have no intention of being late.” Carter broke in. “What Daniel is trying to say in his awkward way, is that we inadvertently treated you like garbage, and for that we are sorry. I… guess you’re okay… for a girl, and I have no problem serving beside you as a Hunter, but until then I have a class.”

He gave her a kind of parting salute and then headed off around the stable back to the great hall. Kile was kind of impressed. It was the most Carter had ever spoken to her at one time. Of course he could have left out the reference to her being a girl, but then beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“So,” She said, turning to Daniel and taking another bite of the apples. “Any of that true?”

“Okay, Okay, I’m sorry. I told you that you could count on me and I wasn’t there for you. It’s just… the other guys were kind of giving us a hard time for hanging around
with you and… we figured that you didn’t need the extra burden.”

Kile thought that one through for a while. She knew where he was going with that line of reasoning, and she just didn’t believe any of it. Redirect it, so it looks as if they were actually doing her a favor by ostracizing her. She couldn’t help but wonder if she would have done the same things if the
roles had been reversed. That didn’t mean she should to let him off so easily.

“So, you suddenly figured that it was time for you to burden me with this extra responsibility.”

“Well… no… I mean yes.”

“Forget it.” She finally said as she finished off the first apple and started to polish the second on her own tunic as she sat back down.

“What?”

“I’m too tired to argue the point, you’re forgiven.”

“You’re still mad.” Daniel replied as he sat down on the grass beside her.

“Well of course I’m still mad, but I’ll get over it.”

“Actually Alex said it best, after we got the gravy out of his hair that is.”

“Very funny.” Alex replied, not looking up from the class manual he was now reading.

“He said you were the only Hunter in that room yesterday. I think Carter took offense to that, but even he had to admit Alex was right.”

It would seem that Kile wasn’t the only one that saw the un
-Hunter-like attitude that was so predominant within the academy.

“So, where are you heading next?” Daniel asked.

“I have Master Lee this morning and Master Adams later on this afternoon.” Kile replied, “What about you?”

“We have the next class together, Master Rooqack.” He said with a groan that was echoed by Alex. She didn’t know why, she thought science and math were fascinating and Master Rooqack was one of the few instructors at the academy that didn’t
seem to care if she was a girl or not, of course he was usually so involved with his lectures she wasn’t sure if he even noticed.

“I just don’t get it.” Alex said tossing the book aside.

“Don’t get what?” Daniel asked with a sigh that indicated to Kile that this was not the first time they had this conversation.

“All these numbers and lines and ang
les and such, I don’t know, it just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know why we have to learn this.” Alex replied as he rolled over on his back and stared up at the sky. “Why can’t we learn how to hit things and be done with it?”

“Now you sound like Carter.” Daniel laughed as he picked up the book. “Maybe Master Rooqack will explain it in class.”

“I doubt it, I can’t understand half of what he’s talking about anyway, I get lost from the get go.”

“The reasons behind the lessons will make sense soon enough.” Kile said as she got to her feet. She had to get to her own class that she was not looking forward to, but at least she was more awake now.

“How do you know it will make sense?” Alex asked her.

“I’ve only read the book twice.” Kile replied. “I’ll tell you what, meet me in the dinning hall for supper and I’ll explain it in a way that even you could understand.”

“Really, you promise.”

“Sure, why not, but for now we should get going.” Kile said as she held a hand out to help Daniel up.