Hunter's Academy (Veller) (68 page)

The prices seemed reasonable, but then
she never had to shop for supplies before and couldn’t really compare them to anything. She had often accompanied her brother down to the dry good store in Riverport, but that was for seed or farming equipment, she never had to purchase a traveling blanket, or backpack, but if the Guild had recommended Mr. Wollory’s store, and they were paying the bill, who was she to complain. She fished the sheet of paper from her courier bag and walked up to the counter.

Mr.
Wollory was a heavy set elderly man with gray hair that barely covered his head. He was slow and walked with a slight limp as he moved around behind the counter. He turned to Kile with a smile that started at his mouth and ended in the twinkling of his eyes.

“Who do we have here?” He asked in a cheerful and rather loud voice.

“The names Kile sir, Kile Veller.” She replied as she handed him the paper that Kane had signed.

“I’m afraid these old eyes ain’t what they use to be.” The old man said as he pulled out a pair of glasses with shaky hands and had to try a few times before he actually got them on. Even with the glasses he still squinted and held the paper a few inches from his noise to read.  “Well… I’ll be. It says here that you’re a hunter.”

“Yes sir, Probationary level five Hunter.” She replied.

“Well… congratulation.” The old man grinned. “The Guild could use some prettier members. So, where are you out of Hunter?” He asked as he came around the counter and started to pull things off the shelves.

“Riverport originally.”

“Expect ya haven’t been back there in a while.”

“No sir, not since I took the entry examination.”

“
Mystic Tower still as messed up as ever?”

“You’ve been there sir?”

“Sure have, but that was some time back, almost sixty years now.”

“You took the entry examination?”

“Took it, passed it, entered the academy when I was fourteen, became a hunter when I turned eighteen.” Mr. Wollory smiled wistfully.

“So you’re a hunter.”

“Was a hunter.” The old man corrected her. “I took an injury to my leg trying to bring in a bounty. Mean customer, nearly tore it off. Healers said I’d never walk again, but I showed them. Yeah, but it ended my Hunter days. Tried to go back after they fixed me up, nearly got myself killed on a routine delivery assignment. I knew then that my hunting days were over."

He fell silent for a while, as if the memories of those days were still fresh in his mind, as well as the pain.
She couldn’t tell what hurt him more, the pain in his leg or the one in his heart.

“Ah, listen to me prattle.” The old man said as he brought a few more things to the counter. “You can’t relive the past,
that's what I say. Maybe it’s for the best. I’ve seen the direction the Guild is moving in, it ain’t good.

“So, you’re a probationary level five Hunter that means you just got out of the academy.”

“Yes sir, almost a week now.”

“I haven’t been back at the academy in years, I’ve wanted to go, see what the old place looked like, see if it’s changed much, never really had the chance.”

“I couldn’t really say sir. I know they were doing some renovations to the Great Hall and the stables when I left.”

“I never got my portrait in the Great Hall, but then I never got past my Level three certification.” He laughed. “Don’t suppose any of the staff are still there from my days, they were old when I was young, most likely on the other side by now, don’t ya think?” He laughed again as he started to remove the things from the counter and shove them into a large backpack.

“Who ran that place back then?” He asked as he pause and looked up at the ceiling, trying to chase the memories in his head. “I believe it was an old hunter by the name of Estryneld, or something like that, never liked the man, too head strong for me, ever heard of him?”

Kile had to think for a while, the name didn’t sound familiar, but if she was doing the math right, this man had to be about eighty years old, and that was way before her time.

“I can’t say I’ve heard of him.”

“Good, good, hate to think they were teaching you young
’ens about him.” Mr. Wollory grinned. “He was one of those… what are they calling themselves now, sons of…”

“Terrabin.” She finished for him.

“Ah… so yah heard about Terrabin D’al?”

“Only in passing.”
She replied.

“Yeah, sum bitch wanted to
turn the entire Guild into a military for hire. Never happen, never happen.” Mr. Wollory said shaking his head, he stopped and slowly look at her. “How do you know about Terrabin?”

“I had the misfortune of crossing paths with a few of his followers.”
She replied. “They don’t seem to like me much.”

The old man laughed so hard that he nearly choked. “Good, good for you, Guild needs a little spirit. If those sons of Terrabin aren’t taken to you, then you on the right track.” He said as he grabbed a leather tube that was hanging on the wall behind him and set it on the counter.

“So, they’re doing a little renovation huh, well, it’s about time. The place really needed it back when I was studying there.”

“Well, it’s not like they had much of a choice, there was a fire in the great hall, and somehow it spread to the stable.”

“Really now?” He said shaking his head. “It’s a shame about the stables though, the time I spent in there with Luke cleaning them out, well, I could tell you stories about that place.”

“Luke?” She asked. It was a strange coincidence that this old man and she both spent
their time at the academy cleaning out the stables with a man by the name of Luke.

“Well sure Luke
… well, that’s what we called him… now what was his full name. It was kind of strange, foreign if you will. Lukane, Lukor…”

“
Lukiena?”

“Yeah, yeah,
that's it, Lukiena, Lukiena Elemsia Morten.” The old man shouted as if he had just found a long forgotten piece of treasured history.

Was it the same Luke?
Of course that was sixty odd years ago, and although the stable hand looked ageless, she doubted if he was that old. It had to be a coincidence, just two people with the same name, the same very long rather unique name.

“So, this Luke
, what… did he look like?”

“Well
, it’s been some time. Mind don’t work the way it use to. If I recall right, he was a small man, a bit thin with blond hair, quite spoken. Had a tendency to sneak up on you when you weren’t paying attention. The times he caught me off guard I can tell you. It was like he just stepped out of the shadows.”

“How old would you say he was?”

“Luke? Probably on the other side by now, as I said, that was some time back. I mean when I knew him he was… I don’t really know how old he was, it was always hard to tell and he was very private man, never spoke much about himself. If I had to guess, I’d say, when I knew him, he was maybe in his late twenties, early thirties, but my memory isn’t as good as it use to be.”

Just another coincidence Kile told herself. Two men, sharing the same name, were working at the same place, were about the same age and possible looking exactly the same. It was just a long string of coincidences. What else could it be?

“Well… it was nice talking with you Mr. Wollory, but I should really get going, it looks like the crowd outside is breaking up and I have my first assignment to complete.”

“One moment Hunter.” The old man called out as he picked up the backpack and tossed it to her. “Don’t forget your supplies.”

He was a lot stronger than he looked, this eighty something year old man, she realized as she caught the backpack and nearly collapsed under the weight.

“
What's this?” She asked.

“You forget, I was a hunter too once.” He grinned. “You probably came here with nothing but that Guild issued uniform on your back, a sad bag of worthless supplies, and a map that couldn’t lead you to the sea.”

“You’re right.” She said, “You were a hunter, but I can’t afford this.”

“Oh please.” Mr.
Wollory said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “The guild provides for its own, and Kane will believe anything I tell him, as far as I’m concerned everything in that pack is essential. If you want to pay me back, stop by every so often and tell an old man the adventures you’ve had.”

“I’m making a delivery to Tobery. That’s not
going to be very exciting.”

“If there’s one thing that I found out about assignments, there’s no telling how they’ll turn out.”

That was actually not very encouraging she thought as she left Wollory’s goods with more things than she had ever dreamed of purchasing. Fortunately the excitement around the stone dais had died down and only a few stragglers remained to reminisce about the events that took place only five minutes ago. She carried her new backpack across the street to the Bird and Bay.

“Someone’s been shopping.” Beth called out from behind the counter as
she crossed the dining room floor.

“You might say that.”

“Got your first assignment did you?”

“Yes ma’am.”

She replied, not wishing to stop and talk at the moment, but not wishing to be discourteous either.

“I saw you had some excitement out front.” She
added.

“Oh that.” Beth said with a smile and longing look toward the front doors, but more toward the dais that was now vacant. She was another adoring fan of the Hunter Marcus Taylor and Kile would have to make sure she didn’t say anything to upset her.

“Does it bring in much business?” She asked.

“Business, well, not much. They come to hear his tales and they return back to their shop or the fields. It doesn’t really pick up
here until around noon or the evening hours as you saw last night. So if you want your breakfast, now’s the time to get it.”

“Thanks, I’ll be down shortly, I just have to sort some thing
s.” She replied and made a quick, but dignified move, to the stairs before Beth started up again. She left the barmaid still staring at the front door, probably wishing that the great Hunter Marcus Taylor would walk in and sweep her off her feet. It was those fantasies that Kile just didn’t have any time for.

Unlocking the door to her room she
stumbled in and dropped the pack on the bed.

-Kile home
.-

Vesper cried as he came out of the bottom draw of the
dresser and quickly climbed onto the bed.

“We have our first assignment.” She told him. “We’re making a delivery to Tobery this afternoon.”

-Tobery… where Tobery?-

“I have no idea, but we’re
going there.” Kile replied as she unfastened the top of the backpack and dumped the contents out on the bed. It was more supplies than she had brought with her, but then Mr. Wollory already knew that.

Most of the stuff that the old man had given her, she already had, the only difference was that the new supplies were of a better quality th
an the supplies from the academy, the tinderbox and striker alone proved that. The one given to her at the academy was a lump of flint and a small piece of steel, the one that Mr. Wollory gave her contained a piece of flint, a few steel bars, some cedar tinder and a few pieces of burnt cloth all sealed in a waterproof container, there really was no comparison. She sorted through the rest of the supplies, those things that she could identify and would definitely use, she set on the table, as for the others, like the strange black oily substance in a horn, she set aside to one of the shelves until she could figure out what they were used for.

When she was finished she had a new tinder box, a healer’s bag even if she didn’t know what half the stuff in the bag was used for, a set of lock picks although she had never picked a lock in her life and wouldn’t know where to start, a water skin, and some hardtack which she wasn’t planning on eating any time soon.
There was also a new cloak, thicker and more durable than the Guild issued one, but the item that she found to be the most useful was what was inside the narrow leather tube.

She pulled
off the water tight cap and pulled out five sheets of travel sized maps that she laid out on the table. These were more detailed and more complete than the one the Guild provided that it had to be a joke.

The five maps were all done on the same quality of thick paper, in the same level of detail and probably took the cartographer an entire lifetime to complete. The first map was
of the Kingdom of Aru and marked out the borders along the eastern Kingdom of Baala and the western wastelands. The remaining four maps were highly detailed section of Aru, divided into quarters. The map she wanted was of the northwestern section which was easy to identify. It showed everything from the city of Azintar and the Hunter’s academy to Grover’s Den on the western board, a very chilling reminder of just how close she was, but not only that, it also had Coopervill marked out as well as the surrounding cities of Noxton and Shrop. Down south a ways and slightly west was the town of Tobery.

She
looked over the rest of the maps, and although she knew where the City of Littenbeck was, she also found Glovgon where Carter was assigned, the port town of Luth, where Murphy had gone and even Baxter’s Bay, and much to her surprised, she even found the town of Riverport. She was starting to wonder if it even existed, no one seemed to have heard about it. It was just another reminder of how far away she was from the place she grew up.

-Tobery?-

Vesper asked as he walked across the map, looking at a small island in the black water seas.

“Actually we are right here.” She said, pointing out Coopervill. “And we have to go here.” She said as she drew a line with her finger to the small circle that marked Tobery.

-Not far.-

“No, about three inches I’d estimate.”
She replied. “It should take us about two days to get there, two days to get back, a simple assignment for our first one.”

Simple enough, but a little boring to be telling Mr.
Wollory, of course she could always spice it up with a few bandits and maybe a renegade Ogre, but she was never very good at telling tales, that was Alex’s area, and it would kind of be like putting a hex on the whole trip.

“I’ll see if I can’t get our breakfast to go and we can be out of here before
noon.” She told the yarrow who was still exploring the maps.

Getting breakfast to go was easier than she thought as Beth provided her with what she had referred to as the traveler’s breakfast. It was a simple combination of fruit, bread and cheese tied up in a white cloth for the road. It was enough to get her all the way to Tobery and back again, that was assuming that she was reading the map correctly. She collected what supplies she thought she would need, and what she could identify, then stored the rest in the trunk at the foot of the bed, making sure it was locked before leaving her room, which she also locked behind her. Now the only thing she needed to do was get Grim and she could be on her way. It was her first assignment as a hunter and she was eager to get started.

She walked the distance to the Apple Blossom Livery, crossing through the yard and was heading up toward the small farm house when Alisa spotted her from the stable door
s.

“Oh no, no, no.”

Kile heard the young woman called out as she approached. She was dressed in a pair of heavy cotton breeches with knee high boots and a powder blue chainse with white lace. It was a far cry from the flowing dress that Alisa had been wearing the first time Kile had met her, but then she couldn’t really work the stables in a dress, not that what she was wearing was all that practical either.

“You don’t really go out looking like that, do you?” Alisa asked as she started to circle
her.

“What
… what’s wrong with the way I look?”

“Oh Kile please, you look as if you just fell out of a hamper, and not even your hamper. It’s all wrong, all wrong.” Alisa commented, still circling. She felt like a yarrow being stalked by a cat.

“But it’s comfortable.” She said, trying to defend her outfit.

“You look like a vagabond.”

Do you ever wonder why hunters look like vagabonds?

It was the question that Guild Master Latherby had asked her that evening in the burnt out ruins of the Great Hall.

“You keep dressing like that and you will never land yourself a man.” Alisa said as she finally stopped circling and stood in front of her with her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

“Oh, well, in that case.”
She replied, “I’ll keep wearing it.”

“You’ll end up like an old spinster.”

“Yeah, well that suits me just fine, and besides, I haven’t been paid yet, so it’s not like I have a full wardrobe to choose from.”

“I can lend you one of my outfits.” Alisa offered.

Somehow the idea of riding through the wild wearing lace and frills was not something she had in mind. Of course there were some advantages; the enemy would fall over laughing.

“I’ll stick to what I have on thank-you.”

“When you get back, I’m taking you shopping.” Alisa threatened and then motioned to Carl who was working in the field. “Carl, get Grim ready, Kile’s heading out this morning.”

“Yes Miss Reaba.”
Carl replied. There was reluctance in his voice as he looked toward the stables. He took a deep breath before heading in. Kile only hoped it wasn’t because of Grim, but she already knew it was.

“Come on inside while Carl gets your horse, it may take a while.” Alisa said with a hint of a malicious smile as she led Kile up to the house. She knew exactly what poor Carl was in for.

“So, going after your first bounty already.”

“Hardly a bounty.” Kile replied. “Just a delivery.”

“A delivery, that’s not very exciting.”

“Well, I am only
a Probation level five. I have a long way to go before I’ll be assigned any bounties.” She said as she followed Alisa into the kitchen.

The young woman directed her to the same chair she had yesterday, and then put a pot of tea on the fire. She was taking out the cups when Kile remembered the form that Kane had given her.

She quickly pulled it out of the courier bag and handed it to Alisa. “I’m supposed to give this to you.” She told her.

“What’s this?”

“Paperwork from the Guild.” 

“Oh yes, this will make things much easier on the books. Wait right there.” Alisa said as she took the paper and left the room.

Kile sat waiting for Alisa to return, as she kept glancing out the window in the hopes of seeing Grim ready to go, but she knew it would take the stable hands a few minutes to get everything in order, and that was only if Grim cooperated. She pulled out her brother’s letter and opened it. She read it through once and was in the processes of reading it again when Alisa returned.

“Kile, what’s wrong?
You look miserable, I hope it wasn’t something I said earlier. I can get a little carried away sometimes.”

“What? Oh no it’s wasn’t you.
It’s just this.” She replied, holding up the letter. “It’s from my brother, I got this morning.”

“Is everything alright? Is there a problem?” Alisa asked as she took the seat opposite Kile. What surprised her was that this young woman,
whom she had only known for a day, seemed genuinely concerned.

“
It's nothing.” She replied.

“It doesn’t’ look like it’s nothing, but if you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”

Great, now she was making her feel guilty for leaving her out of her personal life.

“It’s just everything back in Riverport.”

“Is it serious?”

“I don’t know.” Kile
said shaking her head as she reread sections of the letter.

“You don’t know if it’s serious?”

“It’s my brother. The entire farm could be burning down around his ears and he would just comment on how warm the weather is.”

“How warm is it?”

“Very.” She replied. “This is the first letter I’ve received from my brother since my father’s passing. By the sounds of it, the farm isn’t doing very well, well… that’s not exactly true. I don’t think it was doing very well even when he was alive, not that he would ever tell me about it.”

“He probably didn’t want to worry you.”

“Yeah, something like that.” She replied. “My father had these… ideas about how to expand the farm but… they never really worked out. In a way I guess I’m responsible for that, he died about two years ago, and my mother’s hasn’t been herself since then. She wasn’t in the best of health most days but, by the sounds of it, it’s getting worse. My brother works the farm alone now.” She said as she handed the letter to Alisa. The young woman was hesitant to accept it but eventually did. She read over it slowly as Kile continued.

“The farm doesn’t
seem to be doing as well as they had hoped. It appears that the crops weren’t as abundant as he had expected and the market prices have dropped, and now my mother is talking about taking on odd jobs to keep herself busy, so it’s worse than he’s telling me. It looks as if they’re in for a bad winter, which mean the money lenders will be coming to visit and I’m half way across the country and can’t do anything to help them.”

“What could you do if you were there?” Alisa asked.

“I don’t know.” Kile replied as she leaned back in her chair. “I just feel it’s my fault that the farm is failing. If I had done as my father wanted me to do in the first place, then maybe they wouldn’t be as bad off as they are now.”

Alisa handed the letter back to Kile, who absently stuffed it back into the
courier bag, much to the protest of Vesper. If Alisa had heard the yarrow cursing, she said nothing about it; she just got up and started to pour the tea.

“My father was a good man.” The young woman said. “He was a hard working man, put his sweat and blood into the stables to keep
it afloat, but he… just wasn’t a businessman. He had idea, ideas that ended up costing us more money than what they brought in and one that nearly lost us everything we owned, but we held on. When he died I took over, and it wasn’t until then that I realized that, for all the good things he did, he wasn’t always right. I took the stables in a completely different direction and look at it now.”

“I’m not sure I’m following you.”

“Two things.” Alisa said, handing Kile a cup of tea. “The First thing is that, problems do have a way of working themselves out, you have to have faith. I don’t think your brother or your mother wants you to go home, if that’s what you’re thinking and I don’t think it’s as bad as you’re making it out to be, at least it doesn’t sound as bad in his words. He doesn’t sound worried, maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. I don’t know your brother so I can’t really say. I can say that the fact that he doesn’t tell you everything means he doesn’t want you to worry, and I’m sure he doesn’t want you to feel responsible for the problems back home.”

“And the second thing?”

“Father’s aren’t always right. How do you know for certain that if you did everything your father wanted you to do, that the farm would be better off than it is now?”

“Well… I don’t, not really.”

“That’s just it.” Alisa replied. “My grandfather told my father before he passed that he had no regrets, my father never understood what he meant. My father always told me if you never have regrets, then you’ve never had to make a decision in your life, which means you never really lived.”

“My father told me a few things
too, but nothing that applies here.”

“We all have choices that we have to make, and we all wonder about the path in life that we didn’t take. I’m assuming that the choice you made was to become a Hunter, am I correct.”

“You can say that.”

“And your father wasn’t very supportive.”

“You can definitely say that.”

“What would happen if you had chosen not to become a hunter, where would your life be right now?”

“I don’t know, but I can hazard a guess.”

“A lot of that has to do with your frame of mind.
If you're happy about the life you're living, then the choices you made are always the right ones, and the paths you didn’t choose were the dark and scary ones, but when you're going through some hard times, when you have your doubts, then those same paths, the ones that you didn’t choose, they always appear to be sunnier. It’s like my father said, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

“Your father had a lot of things to say didn’t he?” Kile replied.

Alisa smiled. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” She said. “But it looks as if Carl has finally gotten Grim ready, so I won’t bore you with my father’s words of wisdoms, at least not right now.”

She
led Kile to the kitchen door and down into the yard.

“You are coming back here aren’t you?” Alisa asked.

It wasn’t so much a question as it was a demand.

“Yes ma’am, otherwise I don’t get paid.” Kile replied.

She stopped and reached into her pocket, pulling out a set of two keys tied with a leather strap.