by Wil Ogden
CHAPTER FIVE: ADVICE SOUGHT:
Sheillene ran west at a steady pace. Ignea weeks behind her, she avoided all contact with people. Instead she refreshed her memories of how to use her bow and how to hunt. She convinced herself that she wasn’t running away from Ignea and the secret she couldn’t bring herself to tell Tara. How do you tell a friend her parents are dead?
Seeking answers, she traveled through the untamed lands, seeking the hidden temple of Temistar. Tales told among members of the Hunter’s Guild told her where to look, but also told her only the greatest Hunters could find it or even dare to try. None she’d met in more than twenty years in the guild had even tried.
Find the spring that feeds three rivers. She knew that only one mountain ridge divided the valleys of the Evenflow, the Wylde, and the White Rivers and it wasn’t much of a rise in the land. At no point did there come a height where the trees stopped growing. Taking a high vantage point would be difficult if she couldn’t get above the trees. Her best chances were at the top of the ridge. She’d reached the east end of the ridge two days earlier. She ran west, jogging north and then south, peering into what she could see of the valleys. She sought another ridge jutting off the one she ran along. Three water flows meant three valleys and three Valleys meant somewhere three ridges met.
A large deer jumped from the brush less than five paces in front of her and stared her in the eyes. Its antlers were fuller than any she’d ever seen. At the shoulders, the creature was taller than Sheillene. It snorted and ran past her, coming close enough that she could have reached out and touched its coat. She felt the wind in its wake and reached for her bow. With a fluid, practiced motion, she locked the end of her bow between her legs and behind her calf and hooked the string. The stag darted back and forth as it ran north, down the side of the ridge. It seemed that it was aware Sheillene had a weapon. Once she had an arrow knocked, he didn’t leave her a clear shot. She started to jog after it, but she’d been running all day and her pack was heavy. If she hadn’t killed a great-rabbit two days earlier, her pack would be lighter and she could have run faster.
She considered dropping the pack and coming back for it, but stopped and watched the deer disappear into the forest. She had enough meat and didn’t have the means to transport such a large hide and all the meat such a beast would have. She didn’t need a trophy.
Turning around she found herself face to face with a woman. Her skin was completely sun-darkened, at least what was not covered by a tight rabbit skin skirt. She almost looked Abvi, except Abvi never had hair that shade of orange and Abvi skin remained pale and unchanged by the sun. The woman was not ugly enough to be human, but was unlike any Abvi she’d seen.
“Temistar?” Sheillene asked.
“Dareia,” the woman replied. “I am Temistar’s Chosen. You are Sheillene. Come with me.”
“The deer, it was a test?” Sheillene asked. But Dareia didn’t answer. The bronze skinned woman turned and sprinted west. Sheillene ran after. She realized if she’d chased the deer that she didn’t need, she wouldn’t have been standing there when Dareia arrived. The deer had been a test.
Even with her full pack and strung bow, Sheillene managed to find the wind to keep pace with Dareia for over a mile. When Sheillene was sure she’d have to slow her pace, they entered a clearing with a pond at the center. Sheillene smiled when she counted three streams leading from the pond.
Stopping at the end of one of the streams, Dareia turned to Sheillene. “Drink. Rest. Temistar will come when she comes.”
“She was expecting me?” Sheillene asked.
“I don’t know that,” Dareia said. “Maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t. None but us Wylde Abvi have found this place in three millennia. We are the servants of Temistar, as are you.”
“I am a Hunter,” Sheillene said.
“And in your respect of the sanctity of the hunt, you serve Temistar,” Dareia said. She lifted an ear to the wind and said, “The goddess comes.”
Sheillene bowed her head, not sure what to do in the presence of a goddess.
“Sheillene of Whisperwillow,” A voice, clear and crystalline, sang.
Sheillene looked up to see a woman dressed in doeskins and carrying a bow across her back and a quiver of arrows at her hip. She had dark brown hair, dark eyes and bronzed skin and looked very human. “Temistar?” Sheillene asked, less sure than she’d been when she’d first seen Dareia.
“Abvi always seem to think they are the elder race,” Temistar said. “Just because the individual lives longer does not make the race as a whole older. But you didn’t come to discover the origins of your people. You came because you doubt.”
Sheillene nodded. “I am unsure I can remain a Hunter after learning what I know another Hunter has done.”
“I don’t see how another’s actions can pertain to your choice of life.” Temistar walked around behind Sheillene, but Sheillene did not spin along.
“I fear my guild…” Sheillene started but Temistar’s Chosen cut her short.
“…my guild,” Dareia said. “I founded it.”
Sheillene had thought those tales to be rumor. Corrected, she said, “I fear our guild, The Hunter’s Guild is not a guild of ideal. I fear they are going astray of what they should be doing.”
“We hunt,” Dareia said. “That’s all that makes us Hunters. That’s the bond between members of the Guild.”
“There was no hunt in what Taren did. He killed a woman and her child.” Sheillene strained to keep her voice under control. She didn’t want her passions to disturb her goddess.
Temistar walked around and stood in front of Sheillene. “You completed the hunt when you found Kita in Ignea. The killing was just a formality.”
“Just a formality?” Sheillene asked. “A family is dead. I cannot kill like that. If your guild supports such behavior, I don’t know that I can be part of it.”
Temistar’s demeanor remained cool. “Be careful not to assign me demesne where I am not the proprietor. While I am the goddess of the hunt, and all members of the Hunter’s Guild worship me so I claim them as mine, I do not claim the Guild as mine. The Guild is yours.”
“As goddess of the hunt, do you condone the hunting of Kita and Leo?” Sheillene asked.
“The hunting? Yes. The killing? No.” Temistar said. “Life and Death of mortals is not my concern. What Taren did was not in my name but in his and the name of his greed.”
“I just don’t know that I can call myself a Hunter if doing so means I am the same as Taren. I don’t know that I can be part of the Guild.” Sheillene said. “I have other options. The world of entertainment is now open to me.”
“Sheillene, you are a great Hunter and have potential as a bard,” Temistar said. “If you came to me to ask my permission to quit the role of Hunter, you have it, but you don’t need it. I cannot tell you what to do with your life. I cannot tell you whether or not to worship me and I have no control over the doings of your guild. Earn my favor and I will assist you if you pray. You may feel better to know that the killings of Kita and Leo did not earn Taren any favor with me. “
Sheillene held her bow in her hand still strung, an arrow still lodged in her grip but not nocked to the string. She knelt and started to set the bow on the ground, but didn’t want to let go. For a moment she stayed on the ground, wondering if she was ready to give up the bow. She was angry at what Taren had done. She felt it soiled a profession she had seen as noble and pure. But now the guild had no integrity in her eyes and she didn’t want to be part of that immorality. Still she did not want to relinquish her bow. “I’m not ready to decide,” she said.
“I’m not forcing you one way or the other, Sheillene.” Temistar said. “But you should find conviction in your decision when you finally make it. Know what you want to be and don’t waver in your path. As my Hunter, I know you can always find the right path.”
Sheillene looked up, but the goddess had disappeared, as had Dareia. She picked herself off the gro
und and looked into the pool of water. She saw her reflection holding the bow in one hand and the lute neck jutting from her pack on her back. She didn’t know how she’d decide which path to follow.
She looked at the sky and noticed the sun had started its descent towards the west. For the moment, it was as good a direction as any and she followed it.