Hunter's Academy (Veller) (30 page)

“You think th
ey’re coming back?” She asked Vesper.

-Don’t know, can’t trust birds… too flighty-

“That was terrible.” She moaned as Vesper chucked. She had no idea that the natural world had such a bad sense of humor.

Fortunately she didn’t have to wait for long as the birds returned one after the other
and landed before her on one of the lower the branches.

-See-

-See-

-We see.-

They said and her mind was suddenly filled with visions of the forest from so high above that once again she felt like she was flying, but this time it was filled with a lighthearted sense of freedom as if she had left all her cares and problems on the ground as she took to the sky. She could see the mountains, the river, the hills, even the academy. It didn’t take her long before she was able to locate herself and her group as they stood motionless in the forest. She could see two other groups, not very far from where they were, and they didn’t appear to be moving either. When she finally came back to her own sense of reality, it was like being dropped back into her body. The sensation of flight was incredible and being trapped in her earth bound form, seem unnatural almost unbearable until she regained her identity. When she was once again Kile and not one of the birds flying over the forest, she thanked them for their help and reluctantly turned back to where she had left the boys.

It didn’t take her long to find them, it wasn’t like she could have lost them as they
were still bickering about the best way to proceed. Alex was checking the sides of the trees, probably looking for moss, while Carter was sticking twigs in the ground so that he could follow the shadows that they cast.

“May I see the map Murphy?” She asked.

The big man got to his feet and handed the rolled up map to Kile, his eyes never left the yarrow that was now perched on her shoulder.

“You got an idea about where we are?” Daniel asked.

She looked over the map for the first time. It was quite detailed in its simplicity and marked out the locations of the three items, the mountain range, the hills, the river, and the academy. It wasn’t difficult to pinpoint their location from what the birds showed her.

“As a matter of fact, I do.” She said as she pointed to a place on the map.

“How do you know?” Carter asked as he dared to get to his feet. “How sure are you?”

“I know there are two other groups, one is here, and the other is just over here.” She said as she pointed to two more
locations on the map. “And neither one of them appear to be moving. If we travel in this direction for about four hours, we’ll find ourselves along the river here. That’s where we should set up camp.”

“And you’re really sure about this?” Carter asked again.

“She's sure.” Daniel replied as he grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulder.

***~~~***

11

It took them a little longer than the four hours that Kile had estimated to reach the river’s edge, but then that was really a guess since she couldn’t tell from the map exactly how far away they were. She was even beginning to have her doubts about the direction that they were heading in, until the sounds of the river grew louder.

“We should make camp here.” Carter said, taking the role of
the leader once again now that he had a clearer idea of where he was. He dropped his pack in the dirt, and soon followed.

For someone who was so good with the physical aspects of the academy, he runs out of steam pretty fast
she thought as she unfastened her own pack and set it down a little closer to the river’s edge.

“So, who’s getting what?” She asked. It was no good just sitting around when they had to prepare for the night.

“We have everything already, what else do we need?” Carter asked.

Kile looked at him in disbelief.

“We’re going to be cutting in from the river tomorrow if we want to reach the first objective on the map. We should at least filter some water and fill up the skins.” She said as she pulled her water skin from her pack. They could probably drink straight from the river, but there was no telling what was upstream.

“I’ve got the filter, who’s got the pot?” Daniel asked as he pulled the filter cloth from his satchel.

Murphy opened his own pack and pulled out the small metal cooking pot.

It was a simple water
filtration system for extracting clean water from nature. The filters were crafted by hand in Littenbeck for just this situation. Wrap the cloth around a pot, pour the water on top and let it seep through. Whether there were any mystic arts involved in the crafting of the cloth or sheer alchemy, Kile didn’t know, and at this point she didn’t really care.

“Do you think we need a fire?” Murphy asked as he began to pull out even more supplies.

“The rain will hold off, for another day or two at least.” Daniel replied. “And we have enough hard tack to last us the five days. I think the less we do the easier it will be to break camp in the morning.”

“We should probably… uh… set our packs where animals can’t get to them.” Murphy suggested.

“That would be more your area Kile, what do you say?” Daniel asked.

She closed her eyes and fell into her edge. She had never done this trick outside of Morgan’s tower, but it was one of the easier skills she had learned and in some ways the most frightening. It bordered on the Maligar
, or at least is seemed that way, but there were no black stands lingering in the dark recesses of her mind. All she had to do was open herself up and let her mind wander through the forest as it touched on a variety of life.

“I don’t think animals are going to be a problem.” She said. The closest and largest thing she could sense was some kind of small ground mammal, probably a ground hog, not far from where they were sitting.

“Oh
… well… I guess that's a relief.” Murphy replied, but he didn’t appear to be very happy about it.

“Are you sure it’s not going to rain?”
She asked Daniel as she watched the clouds that were gathering. She even went as far as to sniff the air, but what rain was supposed to smell like, she wasn’t sure.

“Positive, there isn’t enough moisture in the air.” He grinned. “Trust me, I’m a water mystic.”

“Right.” She said as she filled the last of the water skins and handed them back to him, keeping one for herself. If they didn’t want to do anything more tonight, it was fine with her, she was hoping for an early night anyway, the effects of Morgan’s transport spell still lingered, the long walk to the river didn’t help much and there was still some distance to go tomorrow before they would reach the first destination on the map.

Vesper was already trying to get into her pack when she set the water skin down and pulled him out by the
small ball of fur on his tail.

“What did I tell you?”
She asked him.

-Hungry.-

“When are you not?” She said as she sat down on her blanket and pulled the pack towards her.

She rummaged passed her spare clothes, the length of rope and a few utensils until she finally found what she was looking for. It was a small bundle wrapped tightly in a white cloth. The Quartermaster swore by them she recalled as she pulled at the knot that held the cloth in place. She finally unwrapped what looked like a brick. It was a four inch long, two inch wide, one inch thick brown block of a yet unidentifiable substance that was suppose to be edible. The Quartermaster had referred to it as hard tack, the same food substance that the army used back in the mountain conflicts. She could only hope that it tasted better th
an it looked.

Breaking off a small piece she
held it out to Vesper, but the yarrow refused to even go near it.

-What that?-

He asked as he cautiously gave it a sniff.

“It’s food…
I think.” She replied. “It’s all we have.”

-Find food.-

He said, and before she could stop him, he scurried off into the high grass.

“Don’t go far.” She yelled, and then realized she had yelled it. She looked up at the boys who were now
watching her. “What?” She asked, and they quickly looked away.

Setting
her pack behind her she took off her hat and then her boots. She thought about soaking her feet in the river but was afraid it would be thought of as a girl thing, and didn’t really feel like being teased about it all the next day.  Instead she set her boots behind her pack and settled in for her evening meal. She looked the hard tack over, then made the mistake of smelling it and realized why Vesper was so reluctant to even try it. She couldn’t really place the aroma, it was something in the way of wet wood, but it was the only food they had at the moment.  She took a bite and immediately regretted it. It had the texture of sawdust and the flavor of spiced potting soil.

“They used this during the mountain conflicts?” She asked as she forced herself to swallow the foul tasting food substance. She set the uneaten portion aside.

“That’s what the Quartermaster said.” Daniel replied as he choked down another bite. At least she wasn’t the only one who found the taste of the hard tack unpalatable.

“What a horrible thing to do to the enemy. I’m sure there are laws against this type of cruelty, even in times of war.”

“I kind of like it.” Alex said as he finished his block, but then Alex never had the best taste in food.

Kile wrapped the uneaten brown block of food substance back up and dropped it into her pack. Maybe when she was really hungry, and she would have to be really hungry, it would taste better. She lay down on her blanket, placed her hat over her eyes and tried to get some sleep.
The last thing she thought of, was that Vesper had the right idea and she hoped the yarrow would bring her back something in the morning.

It was a cried in the night that startled Kile from her sleep. She quickly jumped out of bed only to discover too late that she was lying on the ground and tripped over her own feet, falling face first into the dirt. Looking up she saw Daniel already running headlong into the woods in the direction of the cries for help.  Scrambling back to her pack she grabbed her boots and tried to catch up.

“What’s going on?” She yelled.

“I think its Alex.” Daniel said as he got even farther ahead of her and she quickly lost track of him in the dense foliage.

“I think he’s over here.”
Murphy called out somewhere off to her left, but even half asleep Kile could tell the voice was coming more from  the direction that Daniel had run in, then where Murphy was going.

“This better not be one of his jokes.”
She mumbled as she stopped long enough to get at least one of her boots on. She heard Alex cry out again.

“Over here
, I found him.”

It was Carter that called out this time, and she
gave up trying to get her second boot on as she half ran, half hopped into the direction of his voice.

When she finally
reached them, Carter had his sword drawn and was already in the defensive stance, but there didn’t appear to be anyone around to defend against. She also noticed that the stance he took looked rather ridiculous outside the practice ring. If hunters really did that out in the wild, how could anyone take them seriously?

Daniel was in the process of untying
Alex from the truck of a tree.

“What happen?” She asked as she hopped over to them.

“I don’t know.” Alex replied a bit shakily. “I came out to use a tree, and… well… somebody jumped me.”

He was both annoyed and embarrassed about being taken so easily, not to mention the fact that his pants
were unbuckled and down around his knees.

Kile
looked the other way as Alex righted himself. She leaned up against the tree to pull her second boot and saw Murphy come barreling through the forest. He was gasping for breath and looked a little nervous; the poor man must be really out of shape.

“Who did this to you Alex? Who jumped you?” Carter asked as he finally sheathed his weapon.

“That’s just it, I didn’t see anything.” Alex said, bucking his pants. “It was a big blur. I was just… well I was… you know, and then someone or something pushed me into the tree and the rope just kept running around and around, and before I knew it I couldn’t move.”

“And you didn’t see anyone?” Daniel asked.

“No, that’s just it. You… you don’t think the woods are… are haunted do you?” He asked as his eyes began to roam over the shadows of the trees that now seemed to grow even larger.

“I seriously doubt it.” Carter replied.

“Then why do it?” Daniel asked. “What purpose does it serve? A practical joke? If it was, it’s wasn’t very funny.”

“Maybe it’s part of the test.” Murphy said as he struggled to catch his breath.

“What, you think one of the instructors did it?” Carter asked. “It still doesn’t make any sense. Like Danny said, for what purpose.”