Hunter's Academy (Veller) (64 page)

“I should really be getting to the Guild house.”
She said as she finished off her cup of tea. It was a sight better than what Morgan had been serving her during her visits to the mystic, but it still wasn’t to her taste.

“And I have two more pies to bake before tomorrow.” Alisa laughed as she cleared away the table.

“I will pay you for those…when I get settled in.”

“Oh please, I told you not to worry about it, it was no big deal, and I enjoy baking. I’ll just tack the cost of the pies onto your monthly bill.” She grinned.

She still couldn’t tell if the young lady was serious or not, but when it came to money she was sure Alisa didn’t joke about it too much. She had managed to turn her father’s failing venture into a thriving business in as little as two years. Although, Kile had to admit, she could have chosen a better name for it. The Apple Blossom Livery would not have been her first choice for the name of the stables. Alisa’s only competition in town was a place called the Bent Shoe, and even if that wasn’t a great name either, it was a little easier to use in a conversation. She just couldn’t see anyone like Master Boraro checking in at the local inn and telling everyone that he had just put his horse up at the Apple Blossom, it was kind of a conversation killer.

Grabbing
her hat from the back of the chair she checked on Vesper who was sleeping soundly in the courier bag before heading for the door. Alisa walked her down the front path to the main road.

“Now it’s easy.” Alisa told her as she stepped out into the road pointing toward the west. “You want to take this road until you reach the Bird and Bay, head north, across the bridge, then take the first right at Old Lester’s place, past the Mining Company and you’ll find the Guild house.”

“Oh, is that all, am I going to need a horse to get there?” She asked

“No, of course not. It may seem far but this town isn’t all that big. You’ll get the hang of it before long. Look, you can see the Bird and Bay from here.”

“Well, if you don’t hear from me in a couple of days, you may want to send a search party.”

“And I thought Hunters were supposed to b
e able to find their way anywhere.” Alisa laughed.

“That’s only in the wild.” She
replied as she hoisted her pack onto her shoulder and set off down the road.

The town was well established and relatively old, if the trees and the hedges that surround the small houses had anything to say about it. Most of the structures were built of stone with wooden or thatched roofs, but then if Coopervill was a mining town, that shouldn’t come as a big surprise, even the roads were covered in gravel.

It took her only three minutes to reach the center of town, or what she belied to be the center of town. There was
a huge round stone dais raised a few feet above the graveled street, and a small flight of wooden steps running up one side to reach it. On her right a large burly man standing in front of a forge, with a hammer in his hand was flattening thick pieces of metal into thin pieces of metal and on her left a horse drawn carriage was loading supplies from a dry good store. Across from her was the Bird and Bay, or at least that's what the sign might have read that hung over door if she was close enough to see it. Two men sat outside on an old bench starring up at the sky as they drank their pint.

She took the north road up through town, passing a few other small businesses along the way. For a mining town they seemed to have everything here to meet their needs, not unlike Riverport. There was a
Taylor, some kind of meeting hall, even a hospital of sorts. She wondered what Daniel would have thought of the small house that probably couldn’t hold more than one patient at a time, but then Daniel would already be surveying the Guild hospital of Littenbeck by now.

She
stopped to watch the river flow down from the mountains and meandered its way to the sea or possible the ocean. Two boys were throwing sticks in the water and watched them as they floated under the bridge and disappear from sites, something that she did with her brother down by the creek back in Riverport. She often wondered what it would be like to build a raft and just sail to the sea, although the creek back home wasn’t deep enough or she might have tried it. The boys stopped only for a moment to watch her pass, then returned to their game, it was either a lack of curiosity on their part or sticks floating on the water were more interesting than she was.

Old Lester’s place was a pub, and probably a rowdy one from the look
s of the exterior. At the moment it was pretty quiet, but she was sure that when the sun went down and the miner came back from the mines, the pub would be more active, this was a place she would have to avoid. The gravel road split in two, one running up toward the western tree line, the other followed the river back toward town. It wasn’t difficult to locate the Mining Company on the River road, it was the largest building she had seen in town so far and bore the name Denal Province Mining Company in large white letters across the front of the building with, what she assumed was, the Denal Province coat of arms. Further up the river road she saw something she had recognized, a large green banner flapping in the breeze, bearing the symbol of the Hunter’s Guild.

The Guild House was made of stone and wood, and looked very much like the rest of the building in Coopervill, if it weren’t for the green banner outside she would have passed it, thinking it was just another house. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but in retrospect, she hadn’t thought much of the academy when she first arrived there either.

As she walked up the narrow path, she saw a plaque bearing the hunters symbol on the right side of the door, the familiar sword and arrow crossed on a field of green, although the wooden plaque hadn’t been green for ages, the symbol was still the same. Over the top of the door a wooden sign read “Hunter Guild House Local Chapter 42.” She wasn’t sure if the chapter number was significant or not since they were never told about it back at the academy, but she committed it to memory just in case. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, opened the door and stepped inside.

The room was dimly lit and had that dusty damp smell, like an abandoned building which really needed some airing out. A few chairs leaned up against the front wall along with a bullion board that had so many pieces of paper pinned to it that it was difficult to tell if there was actually a bulletin board behind it or not. The shutters to the windows
were closed, letting in a filtered light, adding to the general gloom of the place.

Across the room was a huge reception window, opening into the main office, to the right of the window was a flight of stairs leading to the second floor, to the left was a door, probably a means of getting in and out of the office.

The reception window was set rather height, not designed for short girls and she was forced to lean over the sill to look into the office.

“Is there anyone here?” She called out.

“Just a minute, just a minute.” Came the rather dull response.

She
explored the room a bit more as she waited for the owner of the voice to come to the window. She started to read the messages posted on the bulletin board. They appeared to be job requests for the guild, some of them dating back several years, one was even older than she was. They covered everything from lost pets to someone requesting a hunter to guard their vegetable garden from rabbits.

“What can I do for you miss?”

Kile turned to see a thin old man staring at her from behind the reception window. He was bald, with little tufts of gray hair around his ears which kind of stuck out from the side of his head. He wore a pair of thin wire rimmed glasses that hung on the end of his rather bulbous nose, and his attire was as drab and as unkempt as the rest of the Guild House.

“Well, I don’t have all day.” He said.

There was absolutely no fluctuation in his voice, he didn’t raise it, he didn’t lower. It just stayed at the same monotone level.

“You did come here for something, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yes sir, sorry sir.” Kile said as she reached into the courier bag and pulled out her papers.

“What is the nature of your request?”

“My request?”

“You did come here to request the services of a Hunter, did you not?”

“Um… no sir.”

“Then I’m afraid you’re in the wrong place.” He said and he started to turn away from the window.

“Excuse me sir, I am a Hunter.”

The old man stopped and looked at her, and it was the first expression that she had seen on his face since entering the House. It was one of half curiosity, and half annoyance.

“You know from the Hunter’s Academy, this is the Guild House… isn’t it?” She asked. It would be her luck to be in the wrong place.

“Yes this is the Guild House and I know what a Hunter is
little girl, you don’t look much like a Hunter to me.”

She
quickly handed him her certification papers as well as her destination papers. The old man pushed his glasses up his nose with on bony finger as he unrolled the scrolls and began to read them surprising fast, muttering to himself all the while. He looked up once at Kile and then back down at the papers, and seemed to be rereading them.

“Says here you’re Hunter.” He admitted after a few moments.

“Yes sir. Probationary level five Hunter sir.”

“You’re a…”

Here it comes she thought. She knew what this was about; he was just another member of the Guild on a long list of members that didn’t think a girl could be a hunter

“
… a bit short to be a Hunter.”

Now that was not something she hadn’t expected.

“Never mind, Well… everything seems to be in order.” He said and then double checked the scrolls just to make sure. He took her papers and filed them away, or rather stuffed them into a box under the window and proceeded to pull out a small stack of papers, dropping them on the sill in front of her. “Fill these out.”

She
took the papers and flipped through them. “What are they sir?” She asked.

“Standard consent forms, liability forms, burial request forms, next of kin forms…”

“Yes sir.” She replied cutting him short as she moved away from the window. She looked around for a place to sit and chose one of the chairs that rested up against the wall. Wiping off the layer of dust she took a seat beside the door and started to fill out the forms. They were as depressing as the old man had made them out to be.

Where do you want to be buried when you die? How do you want to be buried when you die? Who’s getting everything when you die? It was as if the Guild didn’t want you to survive. There
were also several legal forms so the Guild couldn’t be held responsible if pieces of you were lost on an assignment. Then there was another form that simply stated that a Hunter takes full responsibilities in the event of a failed assignment, in other words, if the person the hunter was supposed to be protecting dies, it’s basically the Hunter’s fault.

She
began to fill out the paperwork the best she could, it didn’t really mean much in the long run. Her family could never come after the Guild if something happened to her and if she did snuff it, they wouldn’t be able to afford having her brought back to Riverport for burial anyway. She was pretty much on her own. Under the topic of how she wants to be buried, she did think about putting down a request to be set to sea in a burning boat, something that she had read about in one of the cultural books that Master Adams had lent her. It seemed like a very dignified funeral procedure, but one that that Guild almost certainly wouldn’t honor. They’d probably just stuff her into a wicker basket, set it on fire and drop her into the nearest lake. The thought of it actually made her laugh.

“And what do we have here?”

Kile looked up from her half finished forms to see a tall, lean man with long dark hair and a thin mustache that draped down each side of smiling mouth. He had dark eyes that seemed to stare through her and she felt a little uncomfortable.

“Do you mind, you
’re blocking my light.” She replied.

“Ooh, a feisty one. Well little lady, if
you're looking for a hunter, there’s no need to fill out those papers, you found me, I am the Hunter of love.” He said as he struck a pose, the whole act was so humorous that she essentially laughed in his face.

“Does that really work?” She asked him.

The smile on his face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a look of confusion, it was clear that this was not the reaction he usually received.

“Well…
um…”

“Steele, leave the young lady alone.” The old man said from the window.

“Maybe next time then.” Steele replied, his suave smile returning as he brushed back his long hair.

“Great, I’ll write you in, right after being dropped into the lake.” Kile said as she returned to her forms. He didn’t understand what she meant, but he knew he wasn’t making any headway as he walked over to the Old man at the counter.

“What gives Kane?” He asked as he got closer.

They started to talk about something that Kile couldn’t make out so she returned to her forms, only a few dozen more sheets to read through and fill out.