Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (35 page)

“Hey guys, you want to see a trick.” Alex announced as he set his knife down and got up from his stool.

“Not particularly.” Carter mumbled.

“Sure you do, watch this.”

The small boy closed his eyes and held out his hands. Kile had seen him do this before when he showed her the street that his father’s store was on back in Procton, but this time the area of the illusion was greater. This time it wasn’t a street, it was a person, and not just any person, it was a greasy haired boy that they all knew too well.

“Oh for crying out loud Alex, Get him out of here.” Daniel replied as a full size, although slightly shorter, version of Eric appeared in the room with them.

Again, Kile was impressed with Alex’s illusions. Although the specter of Eric that appeared before them wasn’t an exact copy, it would have fooled anyone at a distance. A closer look would have revealed the noise as being slightly off and of course the height, but there was no mistaking who it was.

“Can you make him do anything?” Carter asked.

“How about this?” Alex replied, his voice sounded a little strained as he began to move his fingers, and like a puppeteer with a marionette on invisible strings, Eric the specter began to dance.

“Oh this is just too creepy.” Daniel said as he turned around on his stool to face the wall.

As Eric the specter finished his macabre little performance, he disappeared without a trace.

“Is he gone?” Daniel asked as he slowly turned around.

“Yeah, he’s gone.” Carter laughed.

“Couldn’t you think of someone else to play with?”

“I could always try doing one of Kile.”

“You do that and the potatoes aren’t the only thing that will get peeled in here.”
Kile replied.

“Gotcha.” Alex said as he quickly took his seat.

“How long did it take you to come up with that one?” Daniel asked.

“Not nearly as long as it use to, I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

“At least this one could move.” Carter remarked under his breath, but loud enough for Alex to hear.

“Better
than anything you could create.”

“I’ve kind of moved away from illusions.”

“What do you mean? I thought that was going to be your edge too.”

“Not anymore, I found I could do something a lot better.”

“Oh yeah, show us.” Alex demanded.

“Yeah, like I’d show you.” Carter replied.

“Why not, you’ve seen what I can do.”

“Yeah, and if I show you what I can do, by tomorrow afternoon everyone within this compound, the city of Azintar and half the province will know. I think I’ll keep my edge to myself
for now… if you don’t mind.”

“Spoil sport.” Alex grumbled. “What about you Kile?”

“What about me?” She asked cautiously.

“Don’t you want to show off your edge?”

“Sorry Alex, I’m with Carter on this one. I think I’ll keep my edge to myself for the time being.”

“Fine, be that way, I don’t care.” Alex said, but there was no malice in his voice as he pouted.

“Don’t worry about him.” Daniel assured her. “He always does this.”

“What do I always do?”

“Try to make people feel guilty.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yeah you do.” Carter added. “Just because you’re small and pathetic you think people should feel sorry for you.”

A statement that was answered by a flying piece of potato.

“How long have you guys known each other?” Kile asked.

She never had any close friends growing up, it wasn’t for lack of trying,
there just weren’t any opportunities, no one ever came to the farm and she was seldom allowed to leave. The only friends she had belonged to her brother, if you could call them friends, and she knew they only tolerated her for his sake. If it wasn’t for him they wouldn’t have had anything to do with her.

“Believe it or not, those two are actually related.” Daniel replied.

“Don’t remind me.” Carter groaned.

“How?”

“They’re cousins. Carter’s mother was Alex’s mother’s sister. I met Alex just after his mother passed away. We were what, six? Seven?”

“Seven.” Alex replied in no uncertain terms, but Kile figured he would know the exact day he lost his mother.

“I met Carter not too long after that.”

“Yeah, he’s the reason why we’re all here.” Alex added.

“I didn’t force you to try out for the academy.” Carter replied. “I would have been quite happy if you had stayed home.”

“Oh, so you could be alone here with Kile.” Alex teased, which resulted in a red faced Carter launching another slice of potato across the room.

“Actually it’s not that far from the truth.”

“You too Danny?”

“No, not that.” Daniel laughed as he waved Carter off. “The fact that we’re all here.”

“I don’t get it.” Kile said, hoping to steer the conversation, or the teasing, away from her being alone with any of them.

“Carter always talked about wanting to be a Hunter for as long as I’ve known him. When Quigley heard, he figured it would be a great way for me to hone my healing skills, not that the mystic tower had any interest in me. He talked to my parents and they thought it was a great idea as well. When Alex’s father heard about the two of us going to take the exam, he suggested Alex take it as well.”

“Thought it would toughen him up.” Carter added.

“I’m tough enough as it is.” Alex replied as he pulled back his shoulders and threw out his chest.

“As tough as a dandelion.”

“Hey, you ever try to pick a dandelion, they’re tough little suckers.”

“As you can see, we all managed to get in.”

“Yeah, they must have lowered the bar.”

Kile knew that Carter’s last remark was a jab at Alex, but she couldn’t help
thinking that it also applied to her. She would hate to believe that it was true.

Daniel continued to tell stories of the three of them growing up in Procton and Kile listened with envy. They tried to get her to talk more about Riverport, but she would always steer the conversation back to Procton, what she did tell them about her childhood was vague at best and soon they no longer tried to pursue the issue. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of Riverport, she liked her home town for what it was worth, but the stories of her growing up, or the ones she remembered the best, were also the ones she wanted to forget.

It didn’t take long before the large pile of potatoes dwindled down to a mere handful, and with the last of the potatoes in the pots, ready to greet the cooks in the morning, Kile and the boys cleaned up and headed back to their cells. A new blanket of snow had covered the compound, creating an almost magical world, but in many ways it was just covering the reality. Procton was the snow, Riverport was the reality, and she couldn’t forget where she came from, but it shouldn’t stop her from getting to where she wanted to go.

***~~~***

13

Two months had past and the winter weather was just getting worse as Kile forged her way through the snow to Morgan’s tower.
It would be the first time she had seen him since learning of her abilities and she started to wonder if he was avoiding her. That was until she received word from Kaza that she had an appointment with him. Apparently he had been out of the academy for a couple of weeks and had only just returned.

The crow had landed on her window sill earlier that morning, knocking on the shutters to get her attention. She was already awake, sitting in bed, wrapped in her blankets and reading the last chapters of the book she had borrowed from Master Adams. The normal routine had been put on hold for the last couple of days. The entire schedule had been thrown for a loop because of the snow storm. Her recent assessment of nothing being able to alter the normal course of the academy was sorely overrated, it just needed more snow.

Needless to say, Kaza was not very amused at being used as a messenger pigeon as the snow covered crow hopped into her room and began to complain to the only person that would and could understand him. Kile wondered if Kaza was always this way, or only this way because now he had someone that could listen to him rant.

She reached the great hall and knocked the snow from her boots as she took a break. There weren’t any classes today so the great hall was empty
since most of the cadets were trying to keep warm in the dinning hall. It was the only building at the academy that was large enough to house everyone, both staff and students. It was simply the easiest to heat now that they fired up the coal heaters. Kile was not one for crowds and decided to weather it out in her own cell, although if it got any colder than it did last night, she might have to swallow her pride and stake out a clam in the dinning hall.

The gallery of the great hall
seemed so much larger now that it was empty and Kile regretted not grabbing the key to the small side room. She had not looked upon the paintings since the day Mathew showed them to her. That seemed so long ago now.

-
What’s keeping you? –

“
What's your rush?” She asked as she moved slowly around the room, gazing once again at the over exaggerated pictures of past Hunters. She recognized some of them now, after reading the history books, but their portraits didn’t really do them justice, or maybe it was just the opposite.

Kaza came down from his perch and landed on the top of her hat.

“Do you know any of these?” She asked him.

-
Why would I know them?-

“Because you se
em so knowledgeable.” She said, hoping a little flatter would get the bird out of its foul mood.

-
My knowledge does not extend to the history of the academy-

“I know him.” She said pointing to one of the displays. “According to the book, he fought the great water serpent that terrorized the eastern
seacoast, unfortunately he didn’t fare too well against the Drake of the flat lands.”

-
Why was that?-

“It probably had something to do with
his edge being influenced by the sphere of water and the dragon breathing fire.”

-
It’s never a good idea to work outside your comfort zone.-

“This guy tamed the Dragon of Silmark single handily.”

-Impossible, no one can tame a dragon, well, actually no man can tame a dragon. What was his name?-

“
Jamuson Flint. He was supposedly knighted for it, so I guess that would make him Sir Jamison Flint, Certified level one Hunter.”

-
Never happened.-

“
That’s what the history book said.”

-
Just because a history book said it happened, doesn’t mean it actually did happen. I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, history is written by the victors.-

Kile had heard the saying enough times before, and kept it in mind as she read through the
Hunter’s history, but if nothing was accurate, then what was the point of writing it down. Some of it, if even a little, had to be true to some degree. She looked over the artifacts that sat on display within a small glass case under the portrait of Flint. A long knife, two small stones, a pocket watch and a compass were neatly arranged, but nothing was labeled so nothing was identified as to what they are other than what they were.

“You said no man could tame a dragon, does that mean a woman could?” She asked as the thoughts of flying through the air on the back of a dragon filled her head.

-What I should have said in no vir could tame a dragon-

“I’ve heard that word before. What is a vir?”

-To put is simply, you.-

“I don’t understand.”

-You, your race, your people, you are known as the vir.-

“We are
the vir, I’ve never heard anyone call us that before.” Kile confessed.

-
It’s not surprising, there were many races on the face of Dalval at one time, but it goes back to what I said earlier. The victors write the history. There’s no one left to call you the vir anymore except for those of the natural realm, and the vir don’t listen to them anyhow.-

“The vir. So none of our people, the vir
, could tame a dragon, then who could?”

-
It was said that the alverie could tame dragons, although whether there was any truth in that is up to debate.-

“
Alverie?”

-
The alverie were the first people, before the coming of the vir.-

“Do you know much of the…
alverie?”

-A bit, I have been present at many gatherings of the croceus, where the discussion has been about the alverie and they're supposed whereabouts.-

“The croceus?”