Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (52 page)

“I will not discuss what Master Boraro likes or dislikes, but there is no shame in being Orseen or having Orseen blood.”

“But I’m not Orseen; at least I don’t think I am. My mother was born in the Shia province in the town of Littletree and my father's family has always hailed from Riverport.”

“That may be the case, but one would be hard pressed to trace back the blood line of a forgotten people.
The Orseen were nomadic, and it was said that they came from across the wastelands ages ago but not much was known about why the came or the places that they came from.”

“But who were they? What happened to them?”

“Who they were is hard to say. What historians know about them is very little and not very accurate. They were a secretive race, keeping mostly to themselves, never settling down in one spot for too long, at least not until the end of the Mudd Wars.”

“What did they have t
o do with the Mudd Wars?”

“Do you remember what you learned about the Mud
d Wars?” He asked as he raised one eyebrow and waited. The last thing she needed now was a pop quiz.

She could recall the lessons that he taught them concerning the history of Aru and although the Mudd Wars played a part, they did not dwell
on them. As far as she knew it was an altercation between the long deceased Ogre race and the border cities of Aru. That was when Catherine Y’lew defeated the Ogre’s champion Grydusk, winning the right to treaty with the Ogre’s chief. As far as Kile could remember, there was no mention of the Orseen race.

“The Orseen people sided, not with the people of Aru, but with the Ogres during the war.”

“They were traitor?” Kile asked. Now she understood why being associated with the Orseen bloodline was an insult.

“They weren’t exactly traitors.” Master Adams replied, picking his words carefully.

“But they sided with the Ogres during the war…”

“Yes, but you have to understand that the Orseen were not of the people of Aru and therefore held no such allegiance to the crown.”

“But to side with the Ogres…”

“It is believed by many scholars that the
Orseen were in fact… more…” He paused a moment, as if trying to determine whether or not to continue, then he just sighed and resigned himself to the worst. “That they were in fact kin.”

“They were… related. The
Orseen people were actually… Ogres, and Master Boraro claims that I am of the Orseen blood line.”

“No,
that's not exactly true. The Orseen race is closer to being… an offshoot of the Ogre race.”

“So I
’m only half an Ogre, Oh, no wait, the Orseen where half Ogre, so half Orseen and half Vir so that makes me what, a quarter blood Ogre.”

“Vir?” Master Adams flinched at the use of the word. “Look Kile, nobody is saying you are anything more or less
than who you are. You yourself claim that you have no Orseen blood in your family, and even if you did, that bloodline would be so thin now that there would be little if any connection with the Ogres of old.”

“If that’s so then why does Master Boraro claim that I am
Orseen?”

“Master Boraro is…”
Adams held himself in check as he took a deep breath. “Master Boraro has his own opinions, they are not always correct.”

“But they’re not always wrong either.”
She replied.

“Look, the
Orseen blood line is very thin, any one of us could have a touch of it, even me. It doesn’t’ make any difference, it doesn’t change who we are, it doesn’t make us any less.”

Kile paused for a moment to consider what Master Adams said, but there was still one inescapable opposition to his argument, one that made all the difference in the world. If, as he suggested, the
Orseen blood line was so thin as to be non-existent…

“Why does Master Boraro think that I’m Orseen?”

“I don’t know.” Master Adams lied as he turned from Kile and stepped out into the hall and gave her a curt bow. “I will take my leave of you, go see your friends off, they will be waiting for you.” He said and was half way down the hall before Kile could ask him anything else, not that she really wanted to ask him anything else. What he said was enough for now.

She
entered the Lavatory and splashed some water on her face to wash away the last of the sleep. She looked at herself in the small mirror that hung over the wash bowl. What did Master Boraro see in her that made him think she had Orseen blood? What was it that made her look different than everyone else? What did the Orseen look like? She had never heard of the race before, and now she was accused of being one. Neither one of her parents had ever said anything about the Orseen, they had never even mentioned the word and Kile doubted if they even knew what it was. Master Adams knew. He didn’t come out and say so, but he believes it too, he never denied the fact, he just told her not to be ashamed. Which, in some way, meant that she should be.

She
pulled back her hair and tied it in a tail. This was just one more thing that separated her from everyone else, one more thing that she had no control over. One more thing that she didn’t even know about until somebody else had to tell her. Why was she always the last to know?

She grabbed her hat from the back of the chair and pulled it down, shading her eyes as she stepped out into the hall. The dorms were
quiet now, most of the Cadets would be in the dining hall waiting for the caravans to take them away to far off places, places that she was determined to see one day. Places like Procton and Grover’s Den were just names to her, but in order for her to see them she would have to first become a Hunter.

She was one more step closer, one year of training out of the way. That meant she only had to survive two more years and at least a year on probation, which was assuming she actually graduated. There were still a lot of obstacles in her path. Those that she could see and change she could deal with, the others, well, they will just have to resolve themselves.

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Coming Soon:

Hunter’s Academy