Hunter's Academy (Veller) (24 page)

“Squirrel” She told him.

“Squirrel” He repeated as if he had to think about it for a moment. He shrugged and took a bite, then headed back to the woods.

If the apples had confused him, what would he have said about the wedged of cheese she wondered as she
lay back in her small shelter.

“Tik… Tik, are you here?”

-Kile wants Tik-

She
looked up to see the squirrel sitting on one of the lower branches.

“If I… showed you someone… do you think you could find them in the forest?” She asked the squirrel. She wasn’t really sure how this would work, if it would work. She had received visions or images with a few of the animals she communicated with, but she had never tried to, for lack of a better word, send
an image.

-Tik know woods, Tik will try-

“His name is Alex.” She said and she pictured the small boy, his ever smiling face, his mop of brown hair, his constantly moving mouth, and forced the vision into the word as she communicated it to Tik.

-Yes
… Yes… Tik can find him.-

“Great.”
She exclaimed. That was easier than she thought. “How about Daniel.” She said, and then pictured the taller cadet with his beak like nose, crooked smile and vivid blue eyes merging the image with his name as she spoke it to the excited squirrel.

-Yes… Yes
… Tik understand, Tik can find them.-

The squirrel seemed to be enjoying this as much as
she was.

“Okay, third times the charm. This one is named Carter.” She said as she closed her eyes and pictured the larger boys, his broad shoulders, his close cropped hair,
those dark eyes and that cold hard stare that he gave her whenever she messed up during practice.

-Yes… Yes… Tik know. Tik see this boy.-

“Great.” She said a she pulled the twigs off the pile of food that was hidden in the back of the shelter. “I want you and your friends to take some of this food to those boys that I showed you. Do you understand? All you have to do is just drop the food off and come back here.”

-Yes… Yes… Tik understand.-

And it appeared that the rest of the squirrels understood as well as they started to take the food away and head out into the woods. Kile managed to save a couple of apples, the onion, a few potatoes and of course the wedge of cheese.

“Good.” She said as the last of the squirrels disappeared over the hill. “Let them try to explain
that.” She grinned.

She woke up to a cold winter wind and a rather bright morning sun reflecting off a coat of new fallen snow. Her fire had survived through the night, although it was dwindling fast as she fed it a few more pieces of wood to keep it alive. The sun was pretty low in the eastern sky, which meant it was still early. Master West wasn’t even ready to ring the morning bell yet. He was probably still huddled in his room, trying to keep warm. She pulled her cloak about her as she shifted toward the fire.

This was what it was like to be a hunter she thought as she stared out over the field
. To wake up and face a new day with new possibilities. At this point she felt that there was nothing she couldn’t do; she was also sure that at some point during the day the feeling would fade.

She grabbed the flat stone that she had found the night before, when she rolled over on it while trying to get some sleep. It took her nearly twenty minutes to dig it
out and it took her another twenty minutes to fill in the hole that it left behind, so she could get back to sleep. She had set the flat stone beside the fire as a makeshift frying pan. She wasn’t sure if it would actually work, but what did she have to lose. Mashing up the last apple and spread that over her cooking rock, she used a thin stone she had sharpened to slice, or mangle, the two potatoes before tossing them onto the heated stone. The onion was easier as she peeled it, crushed it and tossed pieces of it onto the potatoes; finally she broke off chunks of cheese and sprinkled that over the top.

While waiting for her potatoes to cook, she took a drink from her hat and started to make mental notes about all the equipment that was vital to survival. She would improve the list for that book on adventuring she was gong to write once she retired. It wasn’t that she needed everything on the list, just those few essential items that would serve more
than one purpose.

“I’m not even going to ask.”

“Master Folkstaff.” She exclaimed as she looked up to see the Hunter standing in front of her. She didn’t smell him coming or even hear him approach this time. She even looked behind him to see if the new snow had been disturbed, there wasn’t even a single footprint to mark his approach.

“I was making my rounds to see how everyone survived the night.”

“And did they?” She asked.

“Some, it would appear, better th
an others.” He said, looking down at the fried potatoes.

“Care to join me?” She asked, “I’m afraid I haven’t gotten as far as plates or fork for that matter.”

“All things can be improvised.” He said as he drew his knife and set about cutting off sections of bark from one of the fallen trees nearby.

A knife
was definitely on the top of her list of essentials for wilderness survival, and looking at the pieces of bark that Folkstaff brought back, plates would definitely be at the top of that list too. The fork was replaced by a stick, which served its purpose quite well, so flatware wouldn’t have to be at the top of the list, maybe somewhere in the middle.

The potatoes didn’t cook all the way through as some of the larger pieces were raw and a bit crunchy, but Master Folkstaff wasn’t complaining and
seemed to enjoy the unexpected breakfast.

“So… how did the other cadets do… if I’m allowed to ask?”

“To tell you the truth.” Folkstaff said after swallowing. “Not as well as I had hoped. Twelve students had to be taken back to the academy last night.”

“Nothing serious I hope.”

“No, nothing that can’t be treated” He replied “Mostly over exposure, though there were two burns and a poisoning.”

“Poisoning?”

“There are a lot of uneatable plants and berries in the wild.” He replied, “But I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” He said as he finished off his plate, or bark. “Although, it would appear that a few of your colleagues share the same taste in food. I was unaware that there were so many apple orchards around, or pear trees for that matter.” He added with a raised eyebrow. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that… would you?”

“No sir.”
She replied, “But if I did… know something. Would something like that be considered… cheating?”

Folkstaff shook his head.

“No, in survival, there are no real rules, therefore there is no cheating.” He replied. “As I said, anything goes. I allowed you to use your edge during the assignment since it was a part of you, it is a part of your identity. In order to past this… exercise, you had to know and understand all the parts that make you who you are. Your friends, whoever they may be, are a part of your identity. Now, clean up and be back to the clearing by midday, you can find your way I assume?”

“Yes sir.” She replied. “But sir…”

She had only turned for a moment, and when she looked back, he was gone. There were still no footprints on the ground, and snow had only been disturbed were the hunter had sat and where he had cut the bark from the tree, no other place marked his passing. He was just there one moment, and gone the next.

She was in no rush to break down camp. She finished off her potatoes, onions and cheese, making a mental note to write down the recipe for further evaluation. A few herbs and spices could have made that a very palatable dish.

She finished off the last of her water, hung her hat over the fire to dry and proceeded to deconstruct her shelter.

-Kile going?-

Tik asked as he came down the tree and sat on one of the lower branches.

“I’m afraid so Tik. Thanks for all your help thou.”

-Tik helped Kile.-

“Yes, Tik Helped Kile.” She grinned. “There’s still some food left under the tree. You can divide it among your friends, although I’m not sure how far it will go with the amount of friends you have.”

Tik hopped down from the branch and searched through the last of the food. He grabbed something, although Kile couldn’t see what it was, and took off.

She finished taking apart the shelter and returning the tree to its original condition, then doused the fire and broke down the small stone firewall. When she was finished, she left the site just as it had been. It was a bit sad though, she was going to miss her home away from home, and in many ways it was more comfortable than her cell back at the academy, except for the bathroom, that was one comfort she was looking forward to.

She headed back the way she came, up through the woods, remembering every landmark and tree in order to find her way back. When she finally arrived, what she found was not what she expected. The entire clearing was filled with large tents and campfires. There was even a
large fire pit in the center of the camp where food was being cooked for the cadets.

“Kile Girl.”

That was something she didn’t miss as she turned to the source. Alex was sitting beside a campfire waving as Daniel emerged from one of the tents.

“What’s this?” She asked as she walked over. The idea that she had survived the cold night with just her little camp fire, a shelter made of tree branches
and a bed of pine needles, and here everyone was sleeping in warm tents on cots. This was a bit annoying.

“It would appear that purifying water is not something that I am capable of doing.” Daniel laughed.

“I don’t understand.” She said as she looked around the campsite. Were all of the cadets here she started to wonder. “I thought this was supposed to be a solo exercise.”

“It is, or… it was.” Daniel explained. “These were some of the cadets that didn’t make it through the night.”

“Or even to the night.” Alex added as he looked down at the fire.

“When we ran into trouble, Master Folkstaff brought us back here, everything was already set up.”

So the minute they ran into trouble, they just called for help. The exercise was only for one night, they couldn’t survive one night out in the wild and they wanted to be hunters. She could understand the twelve cadets that had to be taken back to the academy. She was sure the guild would have frowned on allowing cadets to die of exposure or poisoning for the sake of an exercise, but this was entirely different.

“Is everyone here?” She asked looking
around. She even spotted Eric sitting outside one of the tents with Robert and Murphy.

“Not everyone.” Folkstaff replied as he came walking up behind her.

“Oh… sorry sir.”

“No need to apologize Cadet Veller, the sentiment is mutual. Only three cadets managed to spend the entire night outside the clearing.”

“Three?”

“You, cadet Hausman and cadet Larks.”

She didn’t know who Larks was, but Carter didn’t surprise her, he could have lost his arm and still stubbornly refused to give up.

“Only three.”

“I’m afraid so. I do hope that you try better during the survival examination.” Folkstaff said as he walked toward the center of the clearing.

“Well, that was kind of… mean.” Alex pouted.

“No. He’s right. I gave in too quickly.” Daniel replied “When he appeared last night and asked if I wanted to give up, I did.”

“He asked you?” Kile
exclaimed as she turned to Daniel. “He never asked me.”

“Would you have… if he had asked you? Would you have given in?”

“Well… no I guess not” She said shaking her head. Why would she, she was quite comfortable out there, in fact, she seriously wanted to go back, but then she did ask the squirrels for help, and there was Kaza. If this was a victory, it wasn’t a very clean one.

“So… how did you guys do anyhow?” She asked as she sat down beside the fire.

“Horrible.” Alex replied as he prodded the flames with a stick. “How was I supposed to know you shouldn’t eat cold snow?”

“Why don’t you tell her about your fire?” Daniel laughed.

“I couldn’t start one, so when I saw him coming, I created an illusion.”

“Yeah, he tried to fake out the instructor with an illusion of a fire.”

“It was a great illusion, one of my best, and it would have worked.”

“Why didn’t it?” Kile asked
, although she was sure she knew the answer already.

“Illusions don’t give off heat.”
Daniel laughed.

“If it wasn’t for th
at squirrel I would have probably starved to death.” Alex pouted.

“That may be a bit of an exaggeration.” Daniel corrected him as he took a seat beside the fire.

“What about the squirrels?” Kile asked. She didn’t like the way that sounded.

“Oh, it was really freaky. Th
ese squirrels came charging across the field and ran straight up the tree I’m sitting under, and then he dropped an apple on my head. What are the chances of that happening?”