Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (20 page)

“You’re graduating?”

“That's right, the day after tomorrow we have our closing ceremony, we’re given our papers and then it’s out the Western gate.”

“Papers?”

“Destination and introduction papers.” Tree replied as he started to lead Kile toward the large three story structure. “A Hunter doesn’t know where he’s going to be assigned for his probationary year until he gets his papers. Supposedly the guild weights your merit and skill level and assigns you accordingly; personally I think they just pick names out of a hat. I, myself, am hoping for Baxter Bay, but I doubt it, they already have enough Hunters down there. Knowing my luck I’ll be stuck in one of the smaller outposts like Sender’s Gulch or worse.”

The places were just
names to her, destinations she had never seen, never heard of. She had no idea why one was more desirable than the other and she felt ashamed of her lack of knowledge of the world around her. These people were so much more experienced than she was, she was just a farmer’s daughter from Riverport. She wasn’t even sure if Riverport was a desirable place or not, but as far as she knew it was probably one of those smaller outposts that nobody wanted to go to. It wouldn’t do to show her ignorance too soon she thought as she looked around the compound, she had more than enough time to do that.

“Mr. Treeman, can I ask you a question.”

“Mr. Treeman… man that makes me feel old.” Tree said as he stopped in his tracks looked down at Kile. “Please… call me Tree, or Gerald if you must, I’ll even answer to Hey you, but don’t call me Mr. Treeman.”

“Sorry… Tree.”

“That’s better, so what’s on your mind. I’m here for the next two days; ask me anything you want, by now I know everything about this place.” He said waving his arms in the air as he started to walk. Kile had to run to catch up.

“It was something that Sir Oblum said.”

“Ah Well, nobody around her really listens too much to what the Big Boss Man has to say. He’s usually all wind and no substance. If you want my opinion its Garret Boraro the old weapons master you have to be careful of, that’s the guy that holds the most clout around here. Him or Mathew Latherby. Now, don’t let that guy fool you either, he’s not as much of an idiot as he pretends to be. Somehow that guy knows everything that’s going on at any time, and yet I’ve never seen him around. I don’t know how he does it but he wrote the book of gathering information.”

“Well, it’s just that Sir Oblum said there were only two ways out of the Academy.”

“That's right, the Eastern gate and the Western gate. The eastern gate or Pudora is affectionately known as the gate of shame, the gate of disgrace or, as some people around here call it, the Loser’s walk. If you feel you can’t hack it here anymore, that’s the way you leave and believe me everybody will see you go. Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen about two dozen people walk that path, mostly first years, but they never left unnoticed. Then there’s Venator the West gate, the gate of honor also known as the Hunter’s gate for only Hunter’s use it. When you finally achieve your certification like yours truly, that’s the gate you’ll leave by. Got it?

“Well yeah, I get that much, but what about the south
ern gate. What do they call that? Surely you can leave by that gate.”

“The what?”

“The southern gate, the one that we came through this afternoon, the one that… I guess leads back to the main road, but then again I suppose the eastern gate would too. I mean there really is three ways out of the academy.”

“Yeah
… well… it’s kind of difficult to explain. It has something to do with the original layout of the compound, the southern gate was added when they put the new road in, but the big boss man’s speech has been handed down from headmaster to headmaster, so you see, it just doesn’t have the same effect… Oh look, here’s your room.” Tree said as he stopped in front of a large wooden door and pushed it open.

Kile hadn’t even noticed
they had entered the building let alone reached her room. She quickly looked around to get her bearings; it wouldn’t do for her not to know where her own room was located.

“These are the dorms.” Tree explained after misreading the confusion on her face. “This is where you will survive your three years, if you survive your three years.” He laughed, and then fell
silent, lost in his own thoughts, his own memories. “I’m gonna miss this place.” He finally said.

The hallway was low, narrow and rather poorly lit. It ran the entire length of the building with a row of doors on
either side and a staircase at the other end. The floor was cold stone, the walls were barren. There was no attempt to decorate or to bring any warmth into the building. It served one purpose, and one purpose only, and that was a place for the cadets to sleep after a day’s training.

“It
seems a little hard to believe that anybody would actually miss this place.” She said in disbelief as she watched some of the other boys being shown to their rooms. There was a feeling of hopelessness or possibly even despair.

“
You might be right, I thought the same thing when I came here three years ago, but one of the seniors told me something, and at first I didn’t believe him, but now… now I do, so I’m gonna tell you.”

“What did he say?”

“He said, you’ll come to call this place a lot of things, the prison, the cell block, the barracks, even purgatory but you’ll always remember it as home.”

“I find that even harder to believe.”

“Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but when you graduate, you’ll understand.” Tree laughed as he moved past her into the room.

The comment caught Kile off guard. Since starting this little adventure no one
has given much credence to her actually succeeding. She had come a long way but she still had a long way to go, and a lot could happen in three years.

“Do you really think I’ll graduate, that I can become a
Hunter?” She asked Tree as she stepped into the room behind him.

“Sure… don’t you?”

“I guess I haven’t given it much thought.” She lied.

“Well, that’s a funny attitude to take
. I mean you are here aren’t you?”

“Yeah… but you said you’ve seen two dozen people take the walk of
shame, what if I’m one of them.”

“Nah, you won’t be one of them, I can tell.”

“How?”

“For starters, you’re too
stubborn; you remind me a lot of my little sister.”

“Yeah but…”

“Hey look, becoming a Hunter isn’t the end all. If you don’t become a Hunter you don’t become a Hunter, not everyone is cracked up to be one. But you’ve got this far and that alone is a huge accomplishment, if you don’t get any farther than this, you should still be very proud of yourself. Now, personally, I think you will become a Hunter, and not just any Hunter but one of the best, I can tell, I have a good nose for people. I have high hopes for you. I’ll tell you what. In three years, when you walk though the west gate, I’m gonna be here watching it, and that's a promise, so you have to succeed, because I don’t want to have to come all the way back here for nothing.”

“Okay, I promise.” She laughed.

“That’s better, now, let me show you around your room shall I.”

It wasn’t difficult to see why some people referred to this as the cell block or the prison, because that was exactly what it looked like. The rooms were as cold and as bare as the rest of the decor, with dingy
gray walls, a worn wooden floor and a narrow opening that was laughingly referred to as a window. What furniture there was, was poorly made, and only consisted of a bed, a chest of drawers and a single chair tucked in the corner.

“It’s not as bad as it looks, at least its water proof… well, mostly.”

“Thanks.”

“Soon this place will be just like home. Look, you have all you amenities, your bed, a place to put your clothes, even your own lavatory. What more could you want?”

When he put it that way he was right, it did have everything she really needed, and to top it off it was larger than her room back home.

Beside the bed sat her pack, the one that had suddenly disappeared shortly after she had entered the mystic’s tower. She had assumed it would show up eventually, not that she was worried, it wasn’t as if she had much it in to worry about. She picked up the pack and tossed it on the bed before opening it up and looking inside.

“That’s all you have?” Tree asked as he looked over her shoulder.

Was that pity she saw on his face, it was very unbecoming to him as she closed the pack and tossed it to the end of the bed.

“I travel light.” She replied.

“Sorry... I didn’t mean….”

“It’s alright. I'm used to it.”

“Well, at least somebody knows you’re here.” Tree said, quickly changing the subject as he grabbed a small box wrapped in cloth sitting on the dresser.

“What is it?” She asked.

“How should I know, this is your room after all.”

Kile took the wrapped box from him slowly and shook it gently, it rattled. She carefully removed the cloth, her first thought was that this was some kind of trick, that something was going to pop out of the box, or maybe it would just explode in her hands, but nothing happened, it was a simple brown box with gold leaf writing on the top that read “Carlson’s Confectionaries”

“What is it?” She asked as Tree looked over
her shoulder.

“Carlson’s, that’s a sweet shop located on
Willington Street, just across from the candle shop. One of the best in town.”

“Sweet shop?” She said as she opened the box slowly. Inside, laid out in neat little rows were small pink and white stripped peppermint imps.

“Doesn’t look like I’m the only one who believes in you.” Tree replied. “Do you know who sent it?”

“It doesn’t say, but I have an idea.” She smiled.

“I’ll let you keep that to yourself then.” Tree replied as he headed towards the door. “Supper is in the dinning hall in two hours, if you’re hungry. They’ll probably send someone to get you guys, but this place isn’t as large as it looks. If you don’t want to wait you can probably find it yourself, just look for the cadets outside doubled over the garbage cans, ya can’t miss it.”

“Thanks Tree.”

“Don’t mention it.” Tree replied as he closed the door behind him and she was alone again.

Kile pulled open the bottom draw of the chest and put her box of peppermint imps in first, then stuffed the clothes from her pack in afterward. She took the small ebony box from her shirt and placed that on top of the dresser so that she could see it. It was an unassuming trophy, to remind her that she was the only one to actually pass the final exam in the mystic’s tower, and to reassure her that she
did actually belong here. She took the lone peppermint imp that had been in the box and lay back on her bed.

“I guess I am home.’ She said to herself as she popped the imp into her mouth, it tasted just as she had remembered it.

***~~~***

9

Kile woke to the soft sound of the wind through the open window, or was it the insistent pounding on her bedroom door. It took her a moment to realize where she was as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The room was foreign to her, it wasn’t home, it wasn’t even the cell
in the mystic’s tower, although it did bear a close resemblance. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and sat up as a gentle smile crossed her lips. She was at the academy. This was her first morning waking up as a cadet at the Academy. They told her she didn’t stand a chance, they told her she would fail, that they wouldn’t even let her take the examination, but she proved them wrong, she was actually here.

The pounding on the door grew louder as it echoed through the small room. Kile looked out the window and was surprised to see that the sun was already up. She hadn’t realized how tired she was until she laid down last night, which was shortly after Tree had left. She never even made it to the dinning hall, not that she was looking forward to going. Why would she want to give everyone another chance to stare at her?

“I wonder if I can get room service.” She mumbled to herself as she pulled the blanket around her and, slowly got to her feet then shuffled to the door. When she pulled it open, Daniel almost hit her in the head as she jumped back.

“
A fine thing to wake up to.” She exclaimed.

“Oh, sorry, but I’ve been knocking for like… ten minutes now.”

“Well… I was asleep.” She said as she moved away from the door to let him in. She was not very happy with Daniel this morning, but truth be told she was not very happy with many people first thing in the morning.

“You weren’t
in the dinning hall last night, I was worried.”

“Were you?” She asked, although at this moment, she really didn’t care whether he was worried or not.
If he was so worried about her, where was he when Eric was knocking her down, not once but twice? Where was he then? She didn’t see him rushing to her side.