Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (2 page)

“Oh, who’s
your new friend.” She asked as she reached out and scratched the cat behind the ear. It purred in contentment.

“I think her name is
Moppin, if you can believe that.”

“Moppin? Didn’t
Mrs. Miller lose a cat by the name of Moppin?”

“I don’t know that’s why I came here. The notice on the board was a bit vague, only a description of the cat and it was posted by a Rebecca.”

“That would be Rebecca Miller. Oh. She will be delighted that you found her cat. She’s really the only family Rebecca has left in Coopervill.”

“I can drop her off if you tell me where she lives.”

“Oh, it’s not far from here, just up the road really. I’ll come with you. I need a break from the baking.” Alisa said as she untied her apron and slung it over the clothes line beside the fence.

“So, where’s Vesper? I didn’t think you went anywhere without him.”

“Under the circumstances…” Kile said holding the cat up again. “I thought it would be best if I left him back in my room. I wouldn’t want… Moppin… to get the wrong idea.”

“Smart thinking… so, still no assignments from your Guild?”

“Not a one.”

“I haven’t seen any other Hunters around, what about Marcus Taylor and that… Copper guy.”

“Steele, his name is James Steele.”

“Oh, Steel, Copper, it’s all the same.”

Kile couldn’t help but notices that Alisa remembered Marcus’s name, but then most of the women in Coopervill could.

“Steele’s on an escort assignment to Azintar and
as for Marcus, well, the last I heard he went up north in search of the Beast of Spine Mountain.”

“The beast
of Spine mountain?”

“Yeah, one of the last two Class A open scripts.”

“Oh he is so brave isn’t he? You don’t think he’ll have any problems… do you?”

“Hard to say, since no ones seen the Beast in the last century, he’s not even sure what he’s looking for, so I don’t know how he’ll know when if finds it.”

“Oh, of course he’ll find it.” Alisa replied with a dismissive wave of her hand, and Kile noticed the star struck look in the young girl’s eyes. It was not uncommon when people spoke about the Great Marcus Taylor that they had that look. The Hunter could bring back a half-starved mountain cats and convince the civilians that it was a ferocious beast, because that was Marcus’s edge.

“Here we are.” Alisa said as she stopped in front of a small farm house that looked surprisingly familiar. It was just as Moppin had vision it, but then so was the house beside it and the one across the road. That was one of the things that Kile hadn’t gotten
used to, the different ways that animals see their surroundings and how they interpret them.

Alisa was already knocking on the front door by the time Kile caught up to her. The door opened and a short elderly woman with silver white hair peered out from within. If she was as old as she looked, Kile would have guessed somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred, but she knew that wasn’t possible.

“Can I help you?” The woman asked in a rather raspy thin voice.

“Hello Mrs. Mi
ller, it’s me, Alisa from down the road.”

The old woman smiled as she pulled the door open wider. “Alisa my dear, it’s been ages… and who is this with you?”

“This is a friend of mine, Kile Veller. She’s one of the new Hunter’s in town.”

By now the cat knew it was home, she either recognized the smell, or the voice of the old woman as she struggled to get free of Kile, who was doing all she could to keep from loosing the cat again.

“I think this is yours ma’am.” Kile said finally released the cat, almost throwing it at the old woman. She was surprisingly fast for her age as she caught the cat that leapt into her arms.

“Moppin, my Moppin.”
The old woman cried as she hugged the cat that purred in return. “Thank you my dear… thank you. Please come in.”

Kile was happy enough to make her delivery and run, the Hunter that disappeared after a completed mission, it added to the whole mystery of the Guild, but Alisa wasn’t going to let Kile get away so fast
. She grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the house.

The room was dimly lit, but then most of the places in Coopervill seemed to be dimly lit. It was either the small windows in the buildings or there was a shortage of candles or lamp oil.
Maybe the fact that Coopervill was a mining community, they all got used to the dark Kile thought as she looked around the small room. It was just as Moppin had described it, better than the outside, with the rug by the fireplace and a basket in the corner of the bedroom. For a cat, Kile was sure you couldn’t do any better. There were an awful lot of knitted things lying around the small room, everything from hats and scarves to huge bedspreads and blankets. It would appear that Mrs. Miller liked to knit.

Alisa poked Kile sharply in the ribs
. She turned to see Mrs. Miller setting out a bowl of something for Moppin.

“She asked you a question.” Alisa whispered.

“I’m sorry… I was just admiring your… knitting.” Kile quickly replied.

“Oh, do you like to knit?” The old woman asked.

“I… don’t… really know how to ma’am.”

Her mother had tried to teach her to knit once, but that was just one of those things that Kile never managed to pick up
. Her fingers always seemed to get in the way. The only thing she managed to finish was a vest with no arm holes.

“Every young lady should know how to knit.” Mrs. M
iller replied as she headed for her knitting supplies and Kile was afraid that she was going to start giving lessons on the spot.

“I’m afraid I don’t really have
the time.”

“The young are always in such a rush.”

Yeah, like right now Kile thought as she took a step toward the door.

The old woman dug into her knitting supplies and picked up a rather emaciated purse.

“So, how much do I owe you dear?” She asked as her trembling fingers toiled at the knot.

“Owe?” Kile replied. She hadn’t really thought about that. That was what the Guild house took care of. She should have dropped the Cat off at the Guild house and then Mrs. Mill
er would have paid Kane and then Kane would have paid her, but looking at the state of Mrs. Miller’s purse, not to mention her house, it didn’t really look as if she could afford the Hunter’s fee. Was that one of the reasons that Kane never handed the assignment out, because he knew the financial status of the old woman.

“Forget about it ma’am.” Kile heard herself say as she approached Mrs. Mill
er and closed the old woman’s fingers around the small purse. “I did it on my day off.”

“But you returned my Moppin
. I have to give you something.” Mrs. Miller replied as she slowly put the purse away. She looked around the room and finally picked up a red knitted scarf that hung over the back of the chair. “At least take this.”

Kile draped the scarf around her neck.
“Thank-you ma’am.” She replied.

-Kile.-

Moppin bushed up against her legs, getting the young Hunter’s attention. Kile knew she couldn’t talk to the cat directly, not with people watching, they already thought she was strange. Those rumors didn’t need any more fuel. She knelt down to stroke the cat.

-Come… visit?-

“As long as you don’t go wandering out of the yard again. I don’t want to have to go looking for you.”

-I won’t-

The cat replied with a purr.

“I think we’d better get going.”

“Come by any time dear, the least I can do to thank you for finding Moppin is to teach you how to knit.”

The way the current situation within the Guild was, she might have been tempted to take Mrs. Mill
er up on her offer. At least it would give her something to occupy her time.

She stepped out the front door and onto the footpath that led down to the road.
It was still early, too early for supper, so her next stop would have to be the Guild House. Maybe there was another assignment that she could finish before heading back to the Bird.

Alisa burst out
laughing.

“A fine business person you would make.”
She said.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” Kile asked defensively.

“How much would that… what do you call them… bounties?”

“It’s not exactly a bounty, it was just a script.”

“Okay, script, how much was that script worth to the Guild?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t take much notice it in.”

“Sure you did, how much?”

“Well… somewhere around fifty.”

“Fifty? No wonder the guild isn’t doing much business with prices like that.”

“The Guild has more th
an enough business. They just cut back on deliveries until the Council can determine the connection of these recent deaths.”

“Well… maybe, but you just did that job for what
, about half a coin?”

Kile pulled the scarf tighter around her neck. “I like my pay.” She told Alisa who just laughed again.

“Yeah, and aren’t you suppose to give a certain percentage of that pay to the Guild house. What are you going to do, cut a couple of inches off the end?”

Kile left Alisa at the Apple Blossom Livery to tend to her pies as she headed off to the Guild House. The walk took her back through the center of town, over the bridge, past Lester’s place and down the river road to where the old stone building stood. The green banner blowing in the breeze that displayed the Hunter’s coat of arms marked the location of the Guild house as she turned off the road and headed up toward the front door. The house itself was nothing special and could have easily been mistaken for any other farm house along the street, but it did bear a carved wooden sign over the door that simply read Hunter Guild House Local Chapter 42.

Kile pushed the door open and stepped into the stifling gloom. The only light in the room was that which filtered in through the closed shutters. How could anyone live in such deplorable condition she
wondered as she dragged one finger over the back of the chair, leaving a line in the thick dust. She turned and looked at the billboard that hung on the wall closest to the door. There was more paper than there was board. Each piece of paper was an assignment, an assignment that wasn’t important enough to be assigned to a hunter. Some of those pieces of paper were older than Kile as she pulled another one off.

It was faded and difficult to read but had something to do with a lost book, the date on the script read 1232. Kile was sure whoever lost the book fifty years ago would have found it by now if they were still alive, but she pocketed the script just in case. At
least now she could see the back of the board, even if it was just one small corner. She pulled off another script. This one was a little newer. It was only thirty years old. The script was a request for a guide to lead someone to the town of Shrop. If they hadn’t gone in the last thirty years, they’ll probably never go. She slipped the paper into her pocket as well and looked back to the board for something a little more recent.

“So, found Mrs. Mill
er’s cat.”

She
spun around to see old Kane standing behind the reception window, his tufts of gray hair sticking out over his ears, his thin wired rimmed glasses perched on the end of his rather large bulbous nose.

“How did you know?” She asked. She knew Hunter’s were renowned for their ability to gather information, but she had only just dropped the cat off. Kane said nothing as he pointed to his neck and Kile remembered the red scarf.

“Was that your payment?” The old man asked.

It was difficult to tell if Samuel Kane was mad or not since he always spoke in the same monotone voice. It never
fluctuated. It never rose or fell it just stayed at that same level, as if he didn’t really care one way or the other… about anything.

“You do realize that the Guild requires a ten percent finder’s fee on the completion of all open scripts.”

“Well… yeah I know, but she wouldn’t have been able to afford the fee.”

“You will find many people who request the services of the Hunters are unable to afford the fees, which is why there are so many open scripts on the board.”

“But does that mean we should just ignore them? They ask for our help, how can we just turn our backs on them?”

“That is what the guild expects us to do.” Kane replied. “It is not for us to question the regulations of the council, only to see them through.”

“But that's just not right. I thought we were supposed to help all the people, not just the wealthy… or the powerful.”

“And we try.”

“Then what about this?” She asked, pulling the small piece of paper out of her pocket. “A book, all this guy wanted was help to find a missing book, and his request has been posted on the board for the last fifty years.”

Kane took the paper from Kile’s hand and had to adjust his glasses a few times in order to read the script.