Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (31 page)

She dropped another potato into the bucket. It was a shame it was so dark in the room. With a little more light she could prop the book up that Master Adams had lent her and get some reading in. It was fascinating to learn about the past accomplishments of so many
Hunters, both male and female, only one of which is still on displayed in the gallery. Kile was thinking about stealing another light from the kitchen when a familiar white shape moved across the floor and sat up in front of her.

“Yarrow” She replied.

-Vesper-

The word sort of
popped into her head, she wasn’t sure where it came from or how it got in there but for some reason it just seemed right.

“Your name is Vesper.” She concluded as she held a slice of potato out
to the small rodent that ran and took it from her.

-
Vesper-

“Kile, my name is Kile Veller” She replied. She thought it was a little odd introducing herself to a rodent, or a yarrow, but it
seemed to be the polite thing to do.

-
Kile-

“That’s right.” She replied. “Do you live around here?”

-Here-

“
That's right, around here, in the kitchen.”

-
No-

“Do you belong to one of the mystics?”

-Mystics?-

“Yeah, the old men in the yellow robes. Did one of them bring you to the academy?”

-Academy?-

“The academy
… all these buildings together make up the academy. Did one of the old men in yellow robes bring you here?” She asked. This was going to take longer than she thought, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to do.

-
Yellow man bring to building-

Now she was getting somewhere, it only made sense that this yarrow would belong to one of the mystics, since only a mystic would have a rodent that could speak. Well, actually it didn’t really speak, but it could communicate with her. It must have escaped, or the Mystic misplaced it. If all mystics were like Morgan, that was the most likely scenario.

“So, one of the mystics… the yellow men brought you here.”

-
No-

“Wait, didn’t you just say that a yellow man brought you to these buildings.”

-No you say-

“Did anyone bring you to these buildings?”

-No. Did anyone bring you to buildings?-

“Me? Well… a carriage driver, but I don’t think
that’s what you’re after. I came by myself.”

-
Why?-

“Sometimes I wonder, but because I wanted to.”

-Want to. I here because I want to.-

“So, you live around here?”

“No, I live in Procton but you already knew that.”

Kile jumped, dropping the potato she was holding into the bucket of water which splashed as the yarrow made a run for it. She spun around to see Alex standing in the
doorway looking a bit confused.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, trying to regain her
composure.

“Actually I came to help.” He replied holding up a knife. Kile wondered if it was safe
for him to have one of those.

“You shouldn’t be here. If Master Boraro finds out…”

“Master Boraro is already in bed, most of the academy’s asleep except for the dorms, and besides, you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.”

“Thanks for the offer, but are you sure?”

“Sure I’m sure, I’ve peeled potatoes before. Well… sort of, but I’ve watched my mother do it… sort of.”

Kile quickly scanned the floor for Vesper as Alex went back into the kitchen to get another stool. There was no sign of the rodent anywhere, and Kile had the feeling he wasn’t coming back again tonight, not with the extra body in the room.

“Who were you talking to anyway?” Alex asked as he set the stool down beside the mountain of potatoes.

“Talking?”

“Yeah, you know, talking. You seemed to be carrying on a one side conversation. I thought you had someone in here but…”

“Oh, I was just… talking to myself.” She smiled awkwardly as she dropped another potato in the bucket. “Have you ever heard of a yarrow?”

“Yarrows? They’re only everywhere.”

“Really?” She exclaimed. Maybe Riverport was more isolated
than she thought.

“Yeah, they get into everything. Back home they have a devil of time keeping them out of the food storage. They got into old man Jackson’s bakery and ate through most of his stock before he had to set out traps for them.”

“Traps, couldn’t he just… reason with them?”

“Reason… with a yarrow?”
He asked with a note of bewilderment in his voice. “You are kidding me… aren’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah of course I am, I mean, they
seem so… intelligent.”

“Well yeah, probably more
so than some of the cadets here but they’re still just yarrows.”

“So… they don’t talk.”

“These are just regular potatoes we’re peeling… aren’t they.” He asked as he sniffed one. “I think the long hours are getting to you.”

“Probably.” She replied, but she was sure that the yarrow was talking to her. “Have you ever heard of a Vesper?”

“Vesper… can’t say that I have. Wait a minute, wasn’t there a story about a creature on some remote island in the north called a Vesper. Yeah it was this large creature, they said it was about the size of a horse with large claws and a long snout, and it was covered in scales.”

“Somehow I don’t think it was the same thing.” Kile replied.

“I’m pretty sure it was called a Vesper, Daniel would know. He knows a lot of the different creatures and the stories. We had this man come through Procton some time back. He was full of stories. He was the one that told us of the Vesper. That's what I really want to do, I want to tell stories, but not just tell them.” He said as he put down the knife and the half peeled potato and held his hands out in front of him, palms up.

Before Kile’s eyes, a small section of a town appeared. It was like looking through a keyhole as the street formed before her. The details in the buildings were amazing, she could make out even brick, every stone, she could even see the expressions of every person’s face as the town’s people went about
their daily lives. Moving through the streets, going in and out of the little stores, stopping to talk to one another, all of it occurring just above the small boy’s upturned hands, all for Kile to see. She watched in amazement at this small slice of Procton life was playing out before her, and as easily as it appeared, it was gone.

“Alex, that was incredible.” She exclaimed.

“You really think so?” He asked with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. “It’s a little hard, what with so many things going at one time, but Morgan says that with a bit more practice it should become second nature.”

“Was that Procton?”

“That was the street my father’s shop is on, he’s a tin knocker, took it over after my grandfather passed away. It’s the easiest for me to create since I know every detail of the place. I’ve tried to create other places but they usually have blurry areas that I just can’t remember what was there.”

“Can’t you just… make it up?”

“Yeah, but I’m not that good at it yet, when I try to make up one section, I tend to lose another, but I’m getting better.”

“I’ll say, I wish
I could do something like that.”

“Surly your edge is just as good… isn’t it? I mean I know you’re not really supposed to tell anyone what you
r edge is and if you don’t want to tell me that’s fine.”

“Well, if you ever find out what my edge is, you let me know.” Kile replied as she dropped another potato in the bucket.

“You don’t know what it is.”

“Nope, not a clue.”

“Wow… what did Morgan say?”

“He doesn’t have a clue either.”

“Wow… that kinda… sucks.” Alex replied. He went back to peeling his own potato and seemed to drop the subject all together as if the idea of not knowing what your edge was, was something to be ashamed of.

-
White-

“White what?” Kile asked Alex who looked up from his p
eeling.

“White what what?”

“You just said white.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t?”

Great, now not only was Alex embarrassed for her for not know
ing her edge, he was now probably thinking she was going crazy.

-
White falling-

“Are you alright Kile?” Alex asked. He was getting concerned since she had stopped peeling and was staring at him.

“I’m sorry, I… I thought I heard something.”

-
White falling from sky-

Kile got th
e strong sense of cold that filled her mind with visions of winter.

“It’s snowing.” She realized as if she had just managed to put the pieces of a puzzle together.

“You thought you heard snow?” Alex asked.

“What? No… no it’s snow
ing outside.”

“I doubt it.”
He replied. “Master Rooqack said it won’t start snowing for a couple of weeks.”

Alex got up from his stool and walked back through the kitchen. Within a few moments he called for Kile. As Kile got up, she saw Vesper sitting in the corner watching her. She quickly cut another slice of potato and tossed it to the yarrow before following Alex into the kitchen. Outside the first snow of the winter season was gently falling.

***~~~***

12

Kile sat on the chair, beside the window, wrapped in her blanket, reading the book on the history of the Hunters. The snow had continued to fall all through the night and left about six inches on the ground, but that wasn’t going to stop the academy from functioning as normal. Normal, of course, was a relative term. She was sure that even if a snow storm had struck during the night and they were forced to tunnel their way out of their cells, they would still be required to continue as usual. The one thing that Tree had neglected to warn Kile about, was the fact that there was no heating in their little homes away from home. A thick blanket and a wool cloak were the only thing to keep the winter chill away.

She had managed to get to bed earlier last night with Alex’s help, or maybe in spite of it. The boy meant well, but he took off more potato
than peel, which only meant that Vesper, and the rest of the yarrows, if there were more of them, would be eating well for a while.

She turned the page and looked outside to see if Master West had appeared in all his glory to ring the bell to start the
new day. When he was nowhere to be seen, she turned back to her book. The more she read, the more she was fascinated by the different Hunters and their unique approach to life. It was obvious that the most successful Hunters were also the most unorthodox, the most eccentric, but as diverse as their lives were, their deaths were not that dissimilar, and some of them were downright gruesome. There was one underlining conclusion that she did come to, Hunters did not live to a ripe old age. There were no retirement homes for Hunters, they continued to work until they died, which, if you believe all the stories in the book, wasn’t all that long into their career. The few that did manage to beat the odds usually ended up working on the council or, the unfortunate ones, teaching at the academy.

That would explain Sir Oblum, but not so much Master Boraro, or even Master Adams. What were
their reasons for taking a teaching position? Oh sure, one excuse would be their noble desire to give back to the guild, or possibly the lure of steady pay without the risk to life and limb.

Kile looked out the window again, and this time she saw Master West, wrapped in his woolen
cloak, carefully walking down the snow covered steps. She got up from her seat, draped her blanket over her bed, placed the book in the top drawer of her chest and headed out into the hall. She pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head as she stepped out into the cold morning air, the puffs of her own breath momentarily blinding her. She moved across the compound as the first sounds of the bell echoed in her ears. She even remember to look toward the east, to see what it was that Master West used to mark the new day, but all she saw were the first rays of the morning sunlight on the dingy gray stone walls of Azintar.

“Morning Sir.” She said as she passed a rather befuddled Master West, and took her position in the field. Let them get
used to it.

The first cadet out
of the Barracks, besides her, was a third year, the redheaded boy that she had seen on the field two mornings earlier. He ran across the compound, looking behind him to make sure he had no competition, but quickly slowed down when he saw her standing there. The boy paused before entering the fenced in area of the training field, gave her a salute, recognition of her winning the coveted first person up title, before taking his second place position on the field.

“You’re Kile Veller aren’t you?” He asked. It was an obvious question with an obvious answer. Of course hers wasn’t any better.

“How did you know?” She asked.

“Yeah, okay, that was kind of stupid wasn’t it?” The red headed boy laughed. “I’m Robert Little.” He said, extending his hand. She was a little cautious about accepting it, but she was taught never to be rude and what
could he do to her out here in the cold anyway.