Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (30 page)

Daniel handed Alex back his book. “Go up ahead and save me a seat, I have to ask Kile something.” He told him.

“
Ooh, is it something I shouldn’t know about.” The smaller boy laughed.

“It’s nothing like that.” Daniel said as his face turned red. “Just go. I’ll meet you up
there later.”

“Fine, I get left out of all the good conversations.” Alex replied as he ran off.

“Is there something I should know about?” Kile asked.

“What, oh no, nothing like that.
It's just that I saw you coming back from Morgan’s tower yesterday, and I was just wondering if… you know, you got everything figured out.”

“Morgan’s tower? I’d hardly call
it a tower.”

“
Well, that’s what the other cadets call them since they're round. Lack of originality I suppose, but if you no longer want to talk to me about it, I completely understand, it’s just that…” He said trailing off.

“No, it’s alright,
it's just that we never came to any conclusion about anything.”

“Really, well you should at least know what sphere you’re influenced by.”

“Well… none actually.”

“It can’t be none
. Everybody is influenced by at least one sphere.”

“No, it’s actually none
of them” She replied casually. “I don’t fall into any of the spheres, that's the problem. He says I have something, he just doesn’t know what it is.”

“You’re a freak.” Daniel replied, and then stopped walking when he realized Kile was no longer beside him. He turned around and saw her stand there
with her arms crossed. “Well that’s what they call them.” He said in defense.

“Morgan, and I, preferred the term Miscellaneous. At least for now, until I figure out something better.”

“Well, that’s kind of cool actually; do you know what you can do?”

Kile was surprised by Daniel's level of enthusiasm.
She had figured by being a freak, or a Miscellaneous, that it would just separate her further from the rest of the cadets. She had looked at it as being a negative, not a positive.

“What? You don’t think it’s cool?” Daniel asked, clearing reading
the expression on her face.

“I… never thought of it that way.”

“Are you kidding? A fre-… a miscellaneous is a Hunter that can do things that no other Hunter can. Look at it this way, there have been a dozen or so Hunters that can use the healing arts, there are even more that can create illusions, thousands that can manipulate fire or earth, but… miscellaneous Hunters are a rare breed.”

Kile thought about it as she followed Daniel into the Great Hall, sometimes it’s not always great being a
rare breed.

Master Adams’s class was, without doubt, the most boring, so boring in fact that Kile usually had to force herself to stay awake, and what with her current lack of sleep, it was not going to be very easy. Fortunately for her, Master Adams had his hands full and paid her very little mind. She often wondered if he even realized she was still in the classroom. It was his responsibility to teach the cadets how to read and write in the common tongue, or to be more precise, the Royal language. As far as she knew, the language had been around long before the Royal family and at what point they actually lay claim to it was unknown to her.

It was only during her first week that he had acknowledged her.
He handed her a book entitled “The Political Structure of the Provinces of The Kingdom of Aru.”, and told her to read out loud for the class. She was the only cadet he asked, and she was sure she understood the reasoning behind it. He was trying to embarrass her as well as to prove his point that boys could read and girls could not. The idea was that if you couldn’t read, you couldn’t become a Hunter. A Hunter needs a firm grasp of the common tongue in order to function successfully. They need to be able to read scripts, contracts and assignments as well as write up reports for the guild. It was quite clear to Kile that Master Adams wished to point out that Kile, as a girl, had weak or nonexistent reading skills, and she also had the feeling that he had no intention of correcting that, in fact she was sure he would leave her behind as he schooled the other boys. The reality would have been devastating to Kile, if it wasn’t for the fact that she was the only one in the classroom that could read.

She was six years old when her
brother taught her, and from that point on she read just about anything she could get her hands on, although books were quite scarce back in Riverport. So when Master Adams opened the book to the chapter on the political power of the Province, and told her to read, she read six pages flawlessly before he took the book away from her. That was the first and the last time he ever acknowledged that she was in his classroom.

Kile had been under the misconception that by the age of fourteen, everybody knew how to read. It was second nature to her, as it was with her brother and most of the people back in Riverport, so it came as a surprise to her to learn just how many of the class couldn’t, and those that could, weren’t very good. It was the first time she had ever thought of Riverport as being ahead of anywhere else, instead of lagging so far behind, and it also raised the question, how did they manage to pass the entry examination in the first place. Of course saying they couldn’t read maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it didn’t appear to be that far off the mark. So, on those days she had to attend class and Master Adams was going over the basics, she was left with very little to do and often just sat there and listened with little enthusiasm as he taught the class their letters, but then that was any other day, today she was a miscellaneous.

When she entered the classroom she paused for a moment in the doorway. She would usually choose the seat that was as far away from the instructor as she could get, hiding herself in the back of the classroom where she wouldn’t be noticed. There she would sit in silence, counting the seconds as they slowly passed, hope the classroom would burn down, or there would be a freak flood, or possible a rouge valrik would leap through the window to cause a little mayhem, just to liven things up. So far, none of these events have occurred and so she would fight boredom and sleep until Master Adams finally dismissed the class. If something was going to change, it would have to be her, so she took the seat half way down and far to the right which placed her beside the shelves and more importantly, beside the books. When the boys began to file in, and the classroom began to fill, they instinctively took seats as far away from her as they could. She wasn’t really sure if that was true, but it did appear that the left side of the room filled up a lot quicker than the right. There were advantages to being shunned she though as she looked through the book on the shelf.

Most of the books were political, a subject she was not very fond of. There were a few story books, as well one on landscaping
and another on engineering, even one on thatching, but it was the thick red leather book on the history of the Hunters that peaked her interest.

Master Adams finally arrived, he was usually late so in his world he was right on time. He waited for the class to
quiet down, took roll call and then proceeded to instruct the cadets in the composition of the Royal alphabet, something else the Royal family seemed to have adopted as their own, they weren’t happy with owning just the language they had to own the whole alphabet as well. As any other day, he neglected to acknowledge Kile’s existence, and for that Kile was grateful as she slipped the red leather book from the shelf. By the amount of dust she wiped off the front cover, the book didn’t get much use. She opened to page one, chapter one and settled in for a long day.

She was about a third of the way through chapter three when Master Adams actually called on her.

“Miss Veller” he yelled in a rather irate tone, which would indicate that he had called her name more than once.

She looked up from her book unable to hide her own annoyance at being disturbed while she was trying to read.

“Perhaps you can help us, we are currently discussing his highness, King Roland the thirds succession to the throne last year and would like to know the meaning of the word establishment as it pertains to the political arena.”

How they had gotten from their letter
s to the political establishment was beyond her.

“
It’s a group of social, economic, and political leaders who form the ruling class and have a need to own just about everything they see.” She said without a second thought, and waited to see if he had anything else to add.

“Well, I suppose that is one definition.” He admitted as he turned back to the rest of the class. That was fine with her, when he came up with another definition, he could let her know.

The class went on for another hour before Master Adams finally dismissed them. Kile noted the page number that she was on, closed the book and slipped it back into its home on the dust covered shelf. She had grabbed her own stuff and was about to leave.

“One moment Miss Veller.” Master Adams called from the front of the class.

Now what did she do she wondered as she put her pack down and waited for the rest of the boys to leave. When the room was finally empty Master Adams approached.

“Who taught you to read?” He asked, sitting on the desk in front of
her. He was quite young, and in some ways, not that bad looking now that she had a closer look at him, with his youthful round face, short black hair and dark brown eyes. He looked almost normal, that was in comparison to the other Hunter she had seen so far.

“My
brother taught me… when I was six.”

“I see.” He nodded slowly. “Why do you want to be a
Hunter?”

Kile thought she had answered this question enough times. Maybe she should print it up in a small pamphlet so she could hand it out to anyone who fe
lt the need to ask.

“It was something I always wanted to sir, every since I was nine, when I first met Erin Silvia.”

“Erin. Well, that explains a lot.” He replied, and Kile would almost swear she saw the hint of a smile. “Don’t you realize that there are a lot of people within the guild who would like to see you fail?”

“Yes sir, I am painfully aware of that, but I also know that there are a few people in the guild who would like to see me succeed.”

“Ah, yes, but you see, they can’t help you. If they were to help you, then the guild would look at it as favoritism, and that would be unacceptable. No cadet is aloud special treatment.”

“But am I not already receiving special treatment sir?”

“I don’t think I follow you.”

“Special simple means out of the ordinary, and the treatment I have been receiving from cadets and staff alike has been far from ordinary.” She replied to a rather confused instructor. “If that is all, sir, I promised a friend that I would help him with his studies.” She said as she picked up her belonging and headed toward the door.

“One moment Kile.”

She was ten inches from salvation, she could have just ducked out the door and pretended she hadn’t heard him, but it was too late, she had already stopped. She turned around as he walked toward her holding a thick red leather book.

“You’re right.” He replied, and there was a tone of gloom in his voice that she didn’t like. “There are a lot of members of the staff that want you to quit. They can’t make you, but that can persuade you.”

“Is that what you’re doing sir, persuading?” She asked. She wasn’t sure
where this courage was coming from, probably because she was now a miscellaneous. She never thought she would ever speak to an instructor so directly. Any moment now he would punish her for insubordination, which she couldn’t deny was exactly what she was being.

“Let’s just say, I am being persuaded as well.” He said as he handed her the book on the history of
the Hunters. “Think of it a class assignment.” He smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile as he started to walk away.

“Thank you sir.” She replied as she slipped the book into her pack.

“You shouldn’t thank me just yet, I don’t know if I did you any favors.” He replied without turning around. “Thank me in three years… if you’re still around.”

Kile stepped out of the classroom and headed toward the dinning hall. She was trying to put together everything that Master Adams had said, although he didn’t say very much. Was someone forcing him to make his class miserable for her? And if so, what just changed? The idea that there was this conspiracy within the
Hunter’s academy to force her to quit was a bit overwhelming. It was impossible to believe that the staff didn’t have anything more important to occupy their time and energy than the academic studies of one cadet, even if it was her.

She walked across the compound and entered the dinning hall, she was glad to see that not only Alex was sitting at her table in the back of the room, but so were Daniel and Carter. The majority of the staff and the cadets may be out to force her to quit, but at least she had some that wanted her to succeed and it would appear, one more staff member on her side. Well, maybe not on her side, but at least not against her.

Kile entered the small dark potato room with knife in hand as she reluctantly sat on her stool and picked up the first potato of the night. She finished cleaning up the dinning hall, wiping down the tables, mopping the floors and now she looked upon a mountain of potatoes that sat beside her and the empty bucket that sat in front of her, and realized that she only had another twelve days to go. At least she made some progress today she mused as the first peeled potato fell into the bucket. She had reestablished contact with her friends, even if she wasn’t the one that had broken it off in the first place, and she found an ally in Master Adams. Well, maybe ally was too strong a term. He never said nor gave any real indication that he was going to help her. If nothing else, she did have the satisfaction of explaining math t
o Alex if satisfaction was the right word. It was all in the approach. Remove the Xs and the Ys and replace them with something a little more substantial like apples and oranges and the boy picked up on it pretty quickly. Seriously, how someone can add an X and a Y and managed to come up with an actual number was beyond her, and it wasn’t only Alex she helped. From the way Carter was looking on it was clear that he had problems understanding it as well.