Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (3 page)

She looked around the table for something useful, she couldn’t just walk over there and pick a fight with three boys, especially when one of the kids was three times her weight and twice her height, the outcome of that scenario was something she would rather avoid, not to mention the fact that it was probably not the smartest thing to do during the examinations. She found the answer in the form of a fruit bowl, or more accurately, the fruit within the bowl. It was a taka fruit, A small citrus like fruit, similar to a lemon and quite rare in the Northern province, but she wasn’t really surprised to see it here, by the look of
the table, they had fruit from almost every province in Aru.

Her brother Leon would often accompany their father into town on trade business
, and when he could, and the season was right, he would purchase a few of the taka fruit from Old Fen’s shop when their father wasn’t looking. They would sneak down to the river away from watchful eyes to eat the fruit, and it was there that Kile learned that there was a right way and a wrong way to eat taka fruit and Leon had taught her both.

She quickly selected a good one, like her
brother had showed her, but all the fruit in the bowl appeared to be of excellent quality, which again didn’t surprise her. With fruit in hand, along with one of the white silk napkins that lay on the corner of the table, she walked across the room, acting like all of the other kids, and pretended not to see what was going on in front of her. As she got closer, she managed to walk between the greasy haired boy and his younger victim.

“Hey, what the Hell is your problem.” The older boy demanded as Kile deliberately bumped into him. She turned and stared at him wide eyed as if seeing him for the first time.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She replied, giving him a confused smiled and a dazed looked, which appeared to work as he took a few steps back. It was clear that she had unnerved him. At first he wasn’t sure what to do, and like most bullies would have probably walked away from the situation if it wasn’t for his little fan club waiting to see what he would do next, or at least half of his fan club as the thin kid with the long neck and the sharp nose took himself out of the confrontation by turning around and facing the other direction as if he had no involvement in the situation whatsoever. The Round boy with the mop hair just stood there with an equally confused look and gave a shrug to the dark greasy haired teen.

“I asked you
what’s your…”

“Want one?” Kile asked cutting him off in mid tirade and holding the taka fruit up to his face. She continued to stare at him with her eyes opened as wide as she could. It was the confused, clueless child
bit she used to perform for her brother whenever she wanted to make him laugh, but her brother was use to it, this kid was not.

“Hey man, I don’t think that chicks all there.” The round kid with the mop hair remarked. Kile quickly turned to him with the same dazed look she had given the greasy haired boy, and held up the fruit again.

“You want some?” She asked as pleasantly as she could, she wasn’t trying to be rude. The boy quickly backed up, nearly falling over his own feet in the process.

“Look… kid” The greasy haired boy replied, poking her in the shoulder so that she would turn around and face him. “Why don’t you just run along, this has nothing to do with…”

“They’re really good.” She remarked, cutting him off once again. She could tell it was making him angry, but that was half the plan, too bad she didn’t really think through the other half.

“I don’t care.” He said in a harsh whisper as he knocked her hand aside. Clearly he wanted to shout at her, probably even more th
an that, but he didn’t want to bring too much attention to himself, at least not that kind of attention. He leaned in closer so that his face was only about a foot from hers, which was close enough.

“If you know what’s good for you, you better get the Hel
l…”

“Are you sure you don’t want one?” She asked, “There really is quite a bit over there, I haven’t seen that much taka fruit since my…
well… no… wait, I’ve never seen that much taka fruit… well… it doesn’t’ really matter, does it?, It’s not like I could eat them all, although it would be interesting to try… I really have a fondness for them you know… do you think you could get sick on taka fruit? Well, I suppose you could get sick on just about anything if you ate a lot of it.”

“Is she for real?”
The older boy asked the round kid with the mop hair, who just shrugged in response.

Kile turned the fruit over in her hand like her brother had showed her and then bit into it as hard as she could. The strange thing about the taka fruit is that the juice
s collect at one end after it sits for a while and is evident by the coloring of the peel. If you bite into the darker side of the fruit you can drink the juice, but Kile bit into the lighter side.

It happened instantly, the taka fruit exploded. The peel split on the opposite side of the fruit and the juices squirted out, directly into the face of the greasy haired teen who cursed rather loudly and stumbled backward
. By now everybody in the room turned to take notice.

“Oh
… I am so… sorry.” Kile said pulling out the white silk napkin, “Here, let me help you.”

She reached up with the napkin in one hand, while still squeezing the taka fruit with the other. It was a clumsy attempt to render aid, and at this point the boy wasn’t sure what was happening since he couldn’t see very well.

“Just get away from me will you!” He shouted, pushing her back.

“No, really I’m sorry, just let me help. I keep forgetting which side to start
with. They are a dangerous fruit after all.”

“Stop, you
’re getting it everywhere you idiot!”

“Oh, I am so… so sorry. Here…” she said, turning around as if looking for a place to set the fruit down, finding none she grabbed the round boy’s wrist, opened his hand and slapped the soggy taka fruit into it as hard as she could. The round boy jus
t stood there too stunned to do anything else. She turned her attention back to the teen with napkin in hand.

“Just get off me!” The greasy haired boy shouted, pushing her harder. She stumbled but maintained her balance.

“See if I ever help you again.” She huffed as she turned around, pushing the smaller kid in front of her, directing him away from the other two.

The greasy haired teen managed to wipe most of the juice from his eyes and noticed that he had quickly become the center of unwanted attention.

“This isn’t over.” He hissed then turned and pushed the round kid out of his way as he stormed off, trying to wipe off the last of the sticky juice.

“
Moron.” Kile mumbled under her breath when she was sure he was out of range. She reached into her pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a small golden leaf shaped pendant on a thin chain that had been recently broken. “Is this yours?’ She asked the younger boy hopefully. That would have gone very badly if she had only managed to steal it from the greasy haired kid.

“Yes… thank you… but how?” He asked as he carefully took the pendant back. There was a definite note of relief in his voice as he cradled it in his hands.
“He’s not going to be too happy with you.”

“Yeah, well, one more thing I have to worry about in this exam.” Kile replied.

“Oh, he won’t do anything… not yet anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Kile asked, still watching the older boy push his way across the room. She had taken an instant dislike to him, and that was something unusual for Kile. She had always
tried to see the good in people, but for some reason there just didn’t seem to be any good in that boy.

“That’s Eric. Rumor is this is his third attempt to get into the academy. He knows if he tries anything during the exams, he’s out and probably for good this time.”

“Isn’t stealing the same thing as trying something?”

“Well, technically no, at least not here anyway.” The small boy replied indicating the room they were in.

“Did you say it was his third attempt?”

“Yep, he’s failed the exam twice before.”

She knew that he was older, that was obvious, but she had just figured he had a late start.

“I didn’t know you could take the exam more th
an once.”

“Well, normally you can’t, not really. They say his father sponsored him. He’s Lord Rimes of the
Callor Province. I guess if you have that much pull you can do just about anything.” The boy remarked rather quickly. He slipped the small golden pendant into his pocket and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Alex by the way, Alex Bartlow of the town of Procton.”

“Kile Veller... of the town of
Riverport.” Kile replied taking the boy's hand. At least there was one friendly person in this place.

“Hey Alex, you alright?” A tall blonde haired boy called out as he quickly moved across the room. “I just saw Eric walking away in a real huff, what did you do this time to tick him off?”

The new boy was taller than Kile, but then most of the boys in the room were. He had long blond hair that he wore pulled back into a pony tail, dark brown eyes and a slightly crooked nose. He smiled nervously at Kile, and Alex just rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m all right. It’s not me he’s mad at… this time.”
Alex replied. “Kile, this is Daniel Leary, Danny, this is Kile Veller.”

“Oh… uh
… nice to meet you.” Daniel replied as he wiped his hand on his pants before extended it to Kile, she smiled as she shook it.

“You two know each other?”
She asked looking from Daniel to Alex. She didn’t know anybody here and felt like the odd person out in more ways than one.

“Yeah, we’re all from Procton, Me, Daniel here, even Carter over there.” Alex said as he shot a thumb over his shoulder, indicated another boy standing some distance away. He turned to look in their direction, probably when he heard his name mentioned.

Now he was more of what Kile had expected a cadet at the Academy to look like. Good height, strong build with short brown hair and stern dark eyes. He looked over at the three of them, fixed his gaze on Kile for a moment before quickly turning away.

“I don’t think he likes me much.” She replied. “What is it with all these people, did I do something wrong? Am I not wearing the right clothes or something?”

“Well… no… not exactly.” Alex said, stifling a laugh. He seemed like a good natured boy, even if he spoke rather quickly.

“It’s not that you did anything wrong, it just… who you are is… wrong.” Daniel added with a slight shrug.

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, basically, you’re a jinx.” Alex blurted out, which earned him a slap
on the back of the head from Daniel.

“What… how?” Kile asked.

“Not a Jinx, not exactly, more like… bad news.” Daniel amended.

“Oh, that makes me feel a lot better.” She replied. Being referred to as bad news wasn’t all that much better th
an being called a jinx in her book.

“Maybe that’s not exactly true.” Daniel said.

“Oh, you think?”

“It’s because you’re a girl.” Alex replied.

“That’s only half of it, but it’s a big part of it.” Daniel added

She knew it was going to be difficult, she didn’t realize how difficult.

“The thing is, we’re being watched, everything we do and say is being studied.” Daniel replied. “Nobody here thinks you’re going to get through the examination so nobody wants to be seen talking to you. They feel that it will look bad for them if they’re discovered talking to someone who… failed.”

“Guilt by association.” Alex added.

“Yeah, Carter really wants to become a Hunter so he won’t do anything to risk his chances, he’s a good guy, but kinda… superstitious.”

“Great that makes me feel a lot better.” Kile replied, not only had she been labeled a bad news jinx, but they had already determined that she was going to fail the exam. What other parts of her life have they already figured out for her? It would be nice if someone could tell her, then she wouldn’t have to be surprised in the future.

“Wait a moment.” She said, looking from one to the other. “If I’m such bad news… why are you guys talking to me. If I’m such a jinx, aren’t you guys afraid to be associated with me? My failure could rub off.”

“Not really.” Daniel replied with a shrug. “I’m not all that interested in becoming a
Hunter.”

Well, that wasn’t the answer she had expected as she gave Daniel a second look.
It was true that he looked as out of place here as she did, well, maybe not that out of place, but she wanted to be here. Why would anybody put themselves through this if they didn’t want to become a Hunter?

“Danny’s really gifted.” Alex replied as if reading Kile’s mind. “He’s influenced by the sphere of water in the art of healing, I’ve seen it.”

“Sphere of… water?”

“Yeah, Daniel is a natural healer, he works with Quigley back home, but he can’t really learn much more from him. There are only two places where you can really hone you
r mystic skills. One is, of course, the mystic tower; the other is the Hunter’s Academy. It’s nearly impossible to get into the tower with only one sphere of influence, so the only place he can learn to control his art is at the Academy.”