Chapter 10: The Way of the Hunt
Asha’s training began in earnest the next morning.
After eating a modest breakfast which she could barely touch due to nerves, she was led outside by a hunter. It was the first time she got a good look at the training grounds. The large circular training ground, all stone, was so large it covered the same amount of space as the temple in front of it. Giant stone arches, built by some ancient beings or the dragons themselves, rose over the training grounds and, around the edges, shade clothes hung to offer places of rest or conversation. Banners and ribbons hung from the stone arches and blew softly in the morning breeze.
On one end, targets for the trainees were set up while a brawl circle was on the opposite end. A third section was for hanging, swinging, and moving targets with obstacles for the hunters to leap over and duck under. Asha was led to a group of teens who were sitting on cushions beneath a shade. She realized, with some embarrassment, that she was the oldest of the group by several years. She sat on a cushion in the back and tried not to look back at the myriad of eyes that were staring at her. The whispers began and she felt her face growing red.
“Initiates!”
The snap in the tone rang out and the young hunters all looked forward. Krosis walked up behind them, his mask glowering down on them all. “Have you already forgotten your training? Does one new pupil mean you must lose your control?”
Silence followed the statement from all. Krosis now stood in front of the students, letting the silence stretch before cracking his staff down and making everyone jump. “Today’s lesson is a continuation of your archery. Twelve bullseyes by midday. As for our new initiate, I leave her in your care. It is your responsibility to teach her. If she does not improve by the end of the training, the consequences are on all of you. Now, Asha, see the quartermaster for your garments and weapons. Then, begin training.”
He swept away, his robes bushing against Asha as he passed. The other students rose, shooting glares or looks of resignation her way. Whether any of them wanted it or not, she had become a burden to them. Asha suddenly realized that she had no clue where the quartermaster was. She looked to the other initiates, her expression pleading. None of them moved to help her or greet her. They were busy picking up their bows and moving to the targets. Asha cleared her throat.
“Excuse me. Where can I find the quartermaster?”
One of them turned around and pointed to the opposite end of the courtyard. Asha turned to see, near the base of the temple, a smithy set up with barrels and boxes stacked nearby. “Thank you,” she said.
The quartermaster gave her an outfit of mottled green, consisting of a hood, pants, shirt, boots, and cloak. It was the same outfit as the rest of the hunters. She was then sent to the smith to collect arrows and a bow. It was not as large as the hunter's bows but it was a step up from the old hunting bow she had used in the past.
Asha returned to the targets to find the rest of the initiates firing arrows, talking quietly among themselves. All talk ceased when she arrived and she took her place at the end of the line. Those closest moved to other targets and left her to her own devices.
Asha took up the bow and drew an arrow. She stared down the length of the firing range at her target. It was so far. Or maybe she was nervous. She drew an arrow back, took aim, released her breath, then fired. It flew across the firing range and struck the target. She was glad it had actually hit the target. At least she hadn’t embarrassed herself completely. It was, however, no where near the center. Asha frowned and drew another arrow.
The next few hours, she spent time firing at the target. She was elated when she hit the bullseye, more out of luck than skill. When she approached the trainee hunters who had stopped to rest, they gave her the cold shoulder. One spoke up to her to say, “Clear off, peasant. You don’t belong among the Hunters of Summer Falls.”
Asha blushed. “Krosis believed I had potential. Your issue is with him, not me. I simply seek a new life.”
“We heard how you threw yourself at Krosis. It was your presumption that led you here.”
Asha’s mouth fell open in shock. “I…I didn’t think-”
The trainee sneered. “I expect you wouldn’t. We have been training since childhood for this honor. If you think to come in and rise higher than us, you are mistaken.”
The trainee hunter turned away, his companions joining him in muffled snickers as they went back to training. Asha went back to her shooting silently, her heart sunken with bitterness into the pit of her stomach.
When Krosis returned, he examined the targets. “Asha has made the bullseye only once and has not completed the task.”
“What do you expect?” spoke up a trainee.
The staff cracked and sparks flew from it. A dangerous glow emanated from the dragon's eye at its head. “You will hold your tongue,” said Krosis. “It was your task to aid her. Now, you will all suffer the consequences. Double watch and half rations for all of you tonight.”
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The glares thrown at Asha made her heart sink all the more. Through no fault of her own, she was an enemy to them. Her thoughts were brushed aside as Krosis spoke to her. “Come, Asha. The second key to your training begins. Follow me.”
*
The sun split through the branches of the trees between the Brittle Mountains and the Throat of the World. Krosis had led Asha from the fortress down the path to the river. When they crossed the bridge, they left the path and entered the forest, toward the base of the looming Throat of the World.
Krosis pointed down at a set of indents in the ground. “Determine for me, Asha, what these tracks belong to.”
Asha stared at the various tracks on the ground. Some were birds, some rabbit, some deer, and many more unrecognizable. “Well, those are deer, and those-”
“Of what sort?”
She paused, startled at his question. “Sort?”
“Tell me the sort of animal. Not simply the animal.”
Asha flushed and looked back at the marks. “How am I supposed to know that? Do they have special markings?”
“Perhaps,” he said, looming over her. “But there is an easier way to tell. You know the local creatures in the area, their behaviors and movements.”
“But I don’t know those.”
“So you ask.”
She looked up at his impassive mask, confused. “Who do I ask?”
“Those most knowledgeable,” he said. “In this case, myself. And before…your fellow trainee members.”
Asha caught her breath and looked back at the tracks, trying to hide her embarrassment. Krosis continued. “They failed you, Asha, as well as themselves by not helping you. But you failed yourself by refusing to stand up and demand the help you needed.”
Asha froze, still crouched to the ground. She was unsure what to do. Was his statement a lesson? An accusation?
Krosis looked up and proceeded to walk into the forest. “Come, Asha. There is much you need to learn.”
The words he spoke to her that day as they walked beneath the shade dappled trees would echo in Asha’s mind as her training turned from days into weeks. She would remember his words every day she shot her bow, the arrows circling the targets center closer every day. She would meditate on it when she snuck from one shadow to the next, becoming one with the forest. She would repeat it silently to herself as she studied the tracks of animals or hunt for food. It rang in her ears when she left the brawl circle or the obstacle course in pain. She would breath it in her heart when she sat on warm sun-kissed stones from the sun. Even when she sat alone at the dining tables at meal, she would chew to the rhythm of the words she had set them to.
“Asha, the Way of the Hunt is not just a way of life, it is a way of thinking. You must believe in everything you do and say or the world will know who you truly are. Nature cannot be anything else than what it is. It does not deceive, it does not manipulate. It cannot be fooled and will not be mocked. If you are not completely confident in who you are and what you want, it will know. The Way of the Hunt is to know your body intimately. To know what you can give with every breath and what you can take. It is to know the world you live in. To know the ground you walk, even when you have never walked it before. It is to know every creature and its ways though you have never seen it before. It is to become one with the truth of this world.
“Do not think to hold back, to not hesitate to be honest with all you do. Practice hard every day to perfect your crafts. Become one with the shadows, hunt the animal with precision, fire the bow with intent, but most importantly, understand yourself more than anyone could. It is the lesson most will fail to achieve and thus will rarely, truely, become one who follows the Way of the Hunt. Know yourself, Asha, know the truth of this world, and not just this path but many more paths open up to you.”
Asha worked as hard as she could, determined to prove she could achieve what Krosis had set before her. She would even watch him when he hunted or meditated. His hunting was astounding, his robes making no sound as he glided through the shadows of the trees and levitated arrows, firing them at the speed of a bow without the use of one. Emulating that was impossible for her. But his meditations were a different matter.
He seemed to almost float on his platform among the waterfalls around their mountain. She would watch him from a distance, staring at him from the training ground as he walked out to the platform of stone centered between two rushing falls. Then he would sit, heedless of the sound of arrows, wind, water, or the birds that flitted about him to their nests. How he could remain so focused with the noise around him was a mystery. She guessed it had something to do with his statements about nature. If nature was true without guile, than the seamless noise should blend easily with the mind of one who believed in themselves. Perhaps that was where she truly failed.
Asha was struggling daily to find what Krosis meant by ‘knowing’ herself. She found her mind constantly distracted by thoughts of eing better than she was, her other training, or of home, Orin, and Wulfin. Would Wulfin know she was here? Did he still even care about her? She had no one to talk to about these thoughts either. The trainees were still avoiding her, ‘helping’ her with backhanded comments when she asked. The hunters treated her with civility but pointed out that familiar talk was not meant for them but for those in her training group. Their society was so rigid, structured in such a way that everyone had a part to play and were unwilling to leave it, that she found the loneliness getting to her once again.
This time, however, she had purpose. Asha focused more than ever on her training to keep her mind busy from her thoughts and emotions. It was during this training, when she was aiming at a target, that a distant roar filled her ears. She was no longer alarmed by the sound. Dragons often flew near or roosted upon the slopes of the Throat of the World, not far from her home. She paid no heed as she released an arrow. The roar came again, this time closer. It wasn’t coming from the Throat but from the Brittle Mountains behind the fortress.
She turned to look at the peak of the fortress, through an opening in the shade cloths. A dark shape appeared over the fortress and disappeared over the shade cloth. Asha gasped turning to the heavens and scanning the shade cloth. A shadow passed over it, massive wings buffeting the cloth as it whipped in the wind. A roar split the air and Asha yelled in excitement, “It’s a dragon! A dragon is here!”
The hunters scattered from the central grounds as a dragon soared underneath the cloth. Its white and blue tinged scales shone in the sunlight, creating a dazzling spectacle. An elongated jaw opened to roar again, the horns on its head nearly snagging on the canopy above before it landed with a earth shuddering thud into the courtyard. The dragon then spoke, causing the air to shake with its power.
“Krosis! MeyZ HET!”