Hunter's Academy (Veller) (23 page)

-Help?-

-Help?-

-We
want to help.”

-Help Kile.”

-We want to help Kile.”

Kile looked up at the tree again as the voices came chattering in her head. How many squirrels were up there she wondered?

“I’m not really sure how you can help.” She told them, although she didn’t want to dismiss them so quickly. It was nice of them to offer, but she wasn’t sure what they could do. The only thing that came to mind was food, not that she could or would ever eat a squirrel, but they knew the area better than she did, and she had wasted so much time rubbing two sticks together that she still had to get her shelter built. She turned to Tik who was still sitting upon the rocks waiting eagerly for something to do.

“Can you find me food?” She asked.

-Food.-

-Food.-

-Food.-

-What kind?-

At least one of them was thinking, although she wasn’t sure she knew the answer. It would probably be something like an edible plant, something that a vir could eat that wouldn’t make her ill, something that could be found in the immediate area, something that they could carry.

-Yes.-

-Know where.-

-Food.-

-Food.-

The forest suddenly came alive as somewhere in the neighborhood of
twenty squirrels started to pour from the pine trees all around her.

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” She asked as she watched them all race off in the same direction.

-Because you just set loose an army of little thieves.-

Kaza replied.

Kile was amazed as she warmed her hands by the fire. She would have never thought it possible to start a fire with two sticks and a length of string pulled and braided from her cloak. Kaza
sat on the edge of a tree branch, not far from her, and watched. She could have sworn there was a bit of pride, a bit of swagger in the way the crow perched there.

“Proud of yourself are you?”

-I taught a vir how to harness fire.-

The crow said a he stretched his wings to the sky as if declaring it to the heavens.

“I would have figured it out… eventually.”

-Eventually takes time, and time you don’t have.-

“Well, that’s fire out of the way then, now for water and shelter.”

Water was going to be more of a problem then she had thought as she looked for something to melt the snow in. The only thing she had that could hold
water was also the only thing she had that could keep it out, her brother’s hat. She took it off, turned it upside down and began to fill it with hand full of snow.

It wouldn’t do for her to just toss the hat onto the fire, it would go up in flames before the snow ever melted.
Instead she moved it as close as she dared to the heat and, with the help of a pair of sticks, picked up one of the warmer stones and dropped it into her hat. With the warmth of the stone slowly melting the snow, she set about fixing her shelter.

-It would appear that you have learned a few things after all.-

The old crow commented

“It was bound to happen, wasn’t it?”

-I suppose.-

She
wove the lower branches of the tree together with a few stray twigs that were scattered about. It didn’t need to be much, just enough to keep the snow and the wind at bay. When she was finished she crawled in and sat with her back against the truck of the tree, looking out over the snow covered field, and was surprised on how comfortably warm the entire set up was.

“I could really get
used to this.” She said.

-I can’t-

Kaza replied as he landed in the opening of her shelter.

-I’m out of here child, this cold does not do well for my wings.-

“Morgan will probably be worried about you.”

-Worried? That old vir, he probably doesn’t even know I’m gone.-

“Thanks again for all your help.”

-You would have figured it out… eventually.-

Kaza replied as he took to the air.

She
watched as the crow flew high above the tree line, disappearing in the grayness of the evening. Clouds were beginning to form now, and there was the scent of moisture in the air. Could more snow be on the way? She began to worry about the boys’ progress. Carter could take care of himself, there was nothing involving the physical side of being a hunter that he couldn’t handle. Daniel and Alex on the other hand would be struggling, well… maybe not so much Daniel, but definitely Alex. She could not see the small boy surviving alone in the woods, and his edge wasn’t going to help him much. You can’t eat an illusion. If there was a way she could help she would, but it wasn’t like she could go searching for him in the woods to lend a hand, and besides, she still had one more obstacle to overcome.

It was well into her second hour when she started to get worried. The squirrels had been gone for a long time and she was beginning to wonder if they had forgotten her. She use to watch the squirrels play on the feeders in the front yard, and although they were clever in
their means of getting food, they didn’t exactly strike her as being the most focused of animals. It was too bad she didn’t have a few yarrow to help her.

No sooner
had she resigned herself to go foraging for food when one of the squirrels finally arrived. He scampered across the landscape until he reached her shelter and presented her with… a nut.

It was a single walnut, although she hadn’t remembered seeing any walnut trees around, but at least it was edible, and it was a little more
than she had expected. She had completed her assignment with time to spare.

“Thank you.” She said as the squirrel dropped the walnut beside her.

-Food.-

“Yes… food, thank you.”

-Food.-

“Yes… food.”

She wasn’t really catching what the squirrel was trying to tell her. The images that surrounded his words were rather confusing as all the pictures were jumbled together and didn’t make much sense, until she saw a second squirrel arrive on the horizon.

“Is that what you mean, more food is coming?” She asked the squirrel.

-Yes… food-

She watched as a third squirrel topped the hill, then another, and another, and before she knew it, there was a sea of them heading her way, their furry little tails bobbing behind them.
There had only been, maybe, twenty that left the trees around her an hour or so ago, somewhere along the way they picked up a few dozen more. They came, not just with nuts and berries, but with apples, pears, onions, potatoes, even a wedge of cheese.

“What the… where did you get this stuff?” Kile asked a she started to panic. “What did you do, steal somebody’s supplies.”

-Food.-

They kept saying as each one dropped off another item, and with so many of them talking at once it was difficult to understand any of them. Somewhere, someone’s pantry was slowly being emptied.

“Tik… Tik where are you?”

One of the squirrels climbed over the others until he got in front of the group.

-Kile… help Kile.-

“Tik?”

-Kile… help Kile.-

“Yeah, you helped… I am so dead.” She exclaimed as she looked at the pile of food that they had provided for her. “Thank you Tik, but you’re going to have to bring some of this food back.”

-Back?-

Yeah, like that was going to work. Who would want an apple with
little squirrel teeth marks in it?

“Look I don’t know if there are any more of you guys heading this way, but get word to them to stop the food… please.”

-Kile have enough food?-

“Yes, Kile has more th
an enough food… thank you.”

She had enough food to last her a fortnight.

It was like the shattering of a fuzzy piece of glass as all the squirrels scattered in every direction and disappeared among the trees. She was amazed on how fast they could move when they wanted to, but she wasn’t sure why they had. She moved slowly back into her shelter and quickly scanned the tree line of the forest, and, although she wouldn’t admit it even to herself, she sniffed at the air, there was the scent of mushrooms and wet earth, somebody was coming.

He was moving through the woods quietly, as if trying to sneak up on her, but she knew which d
irection he was coming from, and it didn’t take her long to figure out who it had to be.

“Folkstaff.” She whispered to herself and looked down at the pile of
food; this was going to be difficult to explain. She quickly scooped up as much as she could and push it to the back of her shelter, and then piled a few stray branches over it in order to hide it. What he didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.

She kept a few of the walnuts and apples aside to show him, that she, at least, had some food to meet the requirements. She set the walnuts close to the fire, and the apple she placed in her hat, which was now filled with fresh water from the melted snow.
She kept one of the apples for herself. She had no problems with little squirrel teeth marks. This was what Folkstaff must have meant by overcoming the desire for comfort.

The Hunter
stopped somewhere back in the woods, out of her sight, but not out of her range of smell. He was waiting and watching, probably trying to evaluate how she handled herself in a survival situation. The only thing she could think to do was to roast the walnuts. She started to break the shells and set the nuts on the stones surrounding the fire.

“I wouldn’t
have thought it possible.”

He had somehow moved from that place just beyond her
sight to a place just beyond her fire, and even though she knew he was around, she was still startled to see him just appear before her like that.

“Master Folkstaff.”

He said nothing as he crouched down beside her fire and looked into her shelter, then at the floppy hat filled with water and apples, then at the roasting walnuts beside the fire, and slowly shook his head.

“Did I do something wrong?” She asked as she quickly ran over everything in her mind, and she was sure she did everything right, or as right as she could remember, had she forgotten
something? Food, shelter, water, fire, no, that was everything that he told them to procure.

“I have observed twenty three campsites so far.” He said as he sat beside
her fire and warmed his hands. “I will admit, I did not have high expectation, but what I had seen so far, had me completely baffled. Cadets eating cold snow, chewing on pine bark, fires that were either out of control or smoking so badly it was hard to tell, that was assuming that they had fires at all, shelters that couldn’t withstand a sneeze let alone a winter wind, and then, I come here.”

“
Did I do something wrong?” She asked again.

“Why do you want to become a hunter?”

The question kind of caught her off guard; it was the same questions every member of the staff had asked her at one time or another. She couldn’t recall any of them asking one of the boys the same question, only her, but she had thought she had put those days behind her.

“It was
something that I’ve always wanted, every since I first met Erin Silva.” She replied, giving him the short version.

“But is this… what you
really want to do?” He said, stretching his arms out to encompass the entire forest. “Is this where you really want to be right now? No roof, no walls, no protection, no comfort, no one to talk to, no one to share with, alone out here… in the wild.”

“Within nature
… among the trees… with the animals…” She added and she knew she had hit on something as the hunter’s eyes lit up and he grinned. They were seeing it the same way. “Yes, this is where I want to be.”

“I am impressed cadet Veller that you, out of all you
r colleagues, are the only one that truly understands. In order to survive within nature, you must embrace it, not fight it, you must become it, not stand outside of it. As I see from your campsite that is exactly what you have done.”

“Thank you sir.”

“I do have one… simple… question.” He said as he reached into her hat and pulled out one of the apples. “It’s the dead of winter, where did you find these?”

“Ah
… yes… that isn’t as simple to answer as you might think.”

“There isn’t an apple orchard or an apple tree in this province, let alone a walnut tree.”

“Oh… well… you did say we could use our edge…”

“Yes I did, and I am not aware of an edge that can produce fruit in the middle of winter?”

“It doesn’t sir, not exactly.”

He looked at her from under his wide brimmed hand, and slowly grinned.

“Hmm… Well, I know the Hunter’s code as well as anyone I guess, and I won’t ask you about your edge, but I am taking this apple as evidence… or as supper, I haven’t decided yet.” He said as he wiped it on his jacket. He was about to take a bite when he noticed the small teeth marks on the outer skin and looked at her curiously.