by Gunhus, Jeff
The next day was going to be one of the most interesting and impactful of my life. Not only was I going to finally reach the Monster Hunter Academy, but I was going to find out a secret about my family that I never would have guessed, and, frankly, I still can’t believe.
Eva was right. I needed a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Chapter Two
In the morning, we spotted land. This was the first time in my life that I had been out of the country and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had images in my mind of Europe being filled with castles, ancient cathedrals and cobblestone streets. As we neared shore, all I saw was a broken-down harbor just like the one we had left behind.
Long buildings lined the wharf. Perhaps once the center of bustling activity, they were now rusting hulks with broken windows and caved-in roofs. Cranes to offload non-existent cargo sat perched at empty berths, slowly deteriorating from lack of use. There was a ship that had sunk in the harbor, just left there to rot.
Eva stood beside Will and me as the crew prepared to dock.
“Nice place,” I said.
“It’s perfect for us,” Eva said. “No one will see us here.”
“How about those guys?” Will asked, pointing to the hundreds of seagulls staring at us from the docks. “They’re just birds, right?”
“Because they’re looking at us like they’re hungry,” said T-Rex.
“Don’t worry,” Eva said. “No one knows we’re coming.”
I couldn’t shake the feeling that Eva was wrong. I could feel the Creach’s eyes everywhere, as though they could see everything we did. I could tell by how Eva squinted at the gulls that she had her own doubts.
“Come on,” she said. “Get your gear. We have a train to catch.”
We gathered our things and thanked the captain and crew for their help. Since the Aquamorph, they had kept their distance from us. Sailors were a superstitious bunch to begin with and having their ship attacked by a fog monster had made it even worse. They were nice enough, but it was clear that they were happy to be rid of us.
The four of us walked through the abandoned shipyard. I’ll be honest with you, it was super-creepy. The dilapidated buildings all had shadowy openings that could hide monsters ready to attack us. I noticed that Eva had unscrewed the regular grasping hook she used for her missing hand and replaced it with a dagger. She had felt it too. Something was wrong. I followed her lead and put my hand on my sword.
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Just keep walking. Don’t draw attention.”
“What’s going on?” Will whispered back.
“We’re being followed,” Eva replied. Will, T-Rex and I immediately scanned the buildings around us. Eva hissed at us under her breath. “You daft idiots. I said don’t draw attention.”
I faced forward, a little embarrassed. “What now?” I asked.
“Now we find out who it is,” Eva said. She smashed her foot onto a glass bottle on the ground and spread out the pieces with her toe. We turned a corner and Eva shoved us into the empty doorway of one of the buildings. Then she crouched to the ground and waited.
In less than a minute, we heard footsteps approach us—soft at first, barely discernible. Then a loud crunch followed as whoever was stalking us stepped onto the glass. Eva whipped around the corner and Will, T-Rex and I followed right behind.
There was no one there.
Eva glanced around, searching the closest possible hiding spaces. A little rock pinged off the top of her head. We all spun around and looked up at the roofline.
There was a boy, probably sixteen, with stiff, spiky hair and intense blue eyes, standing on the roof, making no effort to hide. He was dressed in a black outfit similar to Eva’s, but this one was more tight-fitting and showed off a muscular physique. The boy broke out into a wide smile. Eva shook her head and slid her sword back into its sheath.
“Daniel, you’re lucky you didn’t get killed,” Eva said.
“Are you kidding? Your vacation has made you soft,” Daniel replied.
“You want to play it out?” Eva asked. “See how the actual fight would go?”
The boy jumped down from the roof and landed lightly in front of us, clearly pleased with himself. “No thanks. I know when to stop. I’m not stupid.”
“The self-control is new,” Eva said. “But the self-awareness is about the same as when I left.”
Daniel leaned in to hug Eva, but she turned her body away from him. “Let me introduce you to the new recruits,” she said.
This wiped the grin off his face. He looked like he wanted to say more but turned self-conscious when he saw Will, T-Rex and I watching him. He turned toward Will. “So, you’re the great hope for the Black Guard. I’m Daniel. One of the instructors at the Academy.” He shook Will’s hand.
“Good to meet you. But the great hope, if you want to call him that, is this guy,” he said, nodding to me.
Daniel turned and looked me over. I held out my hand but he didn’t shake it. He looked disappointed. “Yes, well, if you say so.” He turned back to Eva. “Come on, we’ll just make the train if we hurry.” He grabbed Eva’s bag and walked on ahead of us.
I lowered my hand and picked up my own bag.
“He just left you hanging, didn’t he?” said T-Rex. “That’s not very polite.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eva said. “He’s one of the best hunters we have, but he can be a real jerk sometimes. Trust me, I know. Don’t let it bother you.” She set off after him.
But Daniel did bother me. The way he had tried to hug Eva. The whole thing with the handshake. And there was something about the way Eva had looked at Daniel, too. Trust me, I know. What did that mean anyway?
“I thought he was kind of cool,” Will said. I gave him a hard look. “To me, anyway. Come on, let’s catch up.”
We walked through the shipyard quickly, led by our new guide who busily chatted with Eva as we went. After a brief wait on a creaky wood platform, an old-fashioned narrow gauge train chugged into the station and we climbed aboard.
The compartment had rows of seats like in an airplane, but they were metal-framed and covered with thin, worn fabric. There were a few other people scattered among the seats, but none of them even bothered to look up at us as we chose our seats. Eva slid into an empty row and took a place by the window. I decided to sit next to her to see if I could finally get her to give me some details about what to expect at the Academy. But just as I stepped into the row, Daniel shoved me to one side.
“This is my seat, hero. Trainees don’t sit with instructors anyway,” he said. “Might as well get used to it.” He smiled but there was no humor in it. He squared his body to mine as though he were hoping I’d put up a fight.
Will pulled my arm and dragged me into the row where he was sitting. I looked back and saw Daniel still staring me down as he took the seat nearest Eva.
“Daniel seems cool,” Will said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Just great.”
The train pulled out of the station and we were on our way.
The French countryside flashed by as the train made its way deeper inland. I looked back at the last sight of the ocean behind us and felt a little twist of emotion in my chest. The ocean was my link back home. A connection that led directly back to America even though it was thousands of miles over rough seas. Losing sight of it made me feel even more cut off and made the surroundings around me more strange and foreign. I knew it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was never going to see America again.
I tried to distract myself from these morbid thoughts by focusing on the scenery passing by me. Wide swaths of farmland stretched out around us, sectioned out by ancient, stone fences that kept sheep and milking cows comfortably in their own pastures. Every now and then, the fields would give way to lush forests of tall pines and firs.
The speed of the train was more noticeable when we passed these forests, as their trees whizzed
by in a blur. Then the scene would abruptly open again into a wide vista, so suddenly that it gave me a sensation of falling forward out of my chair.
But most interesting were the small villages we passed. The ones nearest the port looked very much like small towns in America. A main street of shops surrounded by rows of houses, a few open parks, electrical and telephone wires snarled atop poles lining every street, and cars clogging everything.
But as we traveled deeper into the countryside, the make-up of these villages changed. Smooth, paved streets gave way to cobblestones and gravel. Building materials of iron and concrete became old stones held together by thick seams of plaster.
Slowly, the wires strung through the streets decreased too. As did the cars. It wasn’t long before each village took on an archaic appearance, preserved as they had been for hundreds of years. Eventually, seeing a car became more like spotting something modern in a movie that was supposed to take place in a different time. You know, like seeing a jet plane fly by accidentally in an old Western movie.
For hours and hours, the train hurtled down its tracks. It made infrequent stops. When it did, Eva and Daniel would carefully watch any passengers who got on and take stock of whether they were a threat or not. Once the train restarted and pulled out of the station, they would get up and go together down the length of the train to inspect every compartment. Only then would they return and settle back into their seats.
Each one of these times, I tried to talk to Eva and ask her questions about the Academy. But she was like a different person around Daniel. She was formal and answered me in short, clipped sentences.
“We’ll get there when we get there.”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Stay in your seat.”
Daniel smirked at me every time, taking a little too much pleasure in my frustration.
While Eva had given Daniel a chilly reception at first, they were now sitting warmly together, talking back and forth in low tones that I couldn’t hear. Every once in a while, Eva would laugh at something Daniel said. I made the mistake of looking at them once and saw Daniel’s hand on Eva’s knee. I turned my back to them and tried to block it out.
“Get a hold of yourself, Jack,” I murmured. I resigned myself to staring out of the window at the passing countryside. The sun went down behind us, casting long shadows. I craned my neck to look forward and saw the distant silhouettes of massive mountains rise up ahead of us.
“I wonder what mountains those are?” asked T-Rex.
“The Alps,” Will said.
I turned toward Will, surprised.
“What? Just because I got D’s in all my classes doesn’t mean I wasn’t listening,” Will said. “I bet that’s where the Academy is. Hidden in the mountains so no one finds it.”
Eva burst out laughing from something Daniel said. I looked over and saw he had his hand on her knee, laughing with her. I felt a tightening in my chest and heat on my cheeks. I didn’t like what was going on between them one little bit. Will glanced over at them, smiling.
“I’ve never heard Eva laugh like that,” he said. “I wonder if they’re a thing.”
“A thing?” I asked. I thought I might throw up.
“You know, like going out.”
“You think so?” I asked, spinning in my chair. Eva was pretending to ignore Daniel as he whispered something, a wry smile on her lips. She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself. I hoped the guys couldn’t see my flushed cheeks. “I guess it’s possible. He’s kind of a putz, though.”
“A putz with enormous muscles and rugged good looks,” T-Rex added.
“Come on, he’s not that great,” I said.
“Are you kidding? Did you see the way he got the drop on Eva? I wish I could do that,” Will said.
“Yeah? Maybe you can get him to teach you how,” I said.
“You think he would? That would be awesome.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “That would be awesome.” I turned to look back outside. The landscape was turning into inky blues and blacks as the last glow from the sunset faded from the sky. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sounds of Daniel and Eva’s hushed conversation and their laughing. I focused on the thump-thump-thump of the railroad tracks as we sped onward, deeper into the night.
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew Will was shaking me, his face right next to mine. I jerked awake and sat up in the chair. The five of us were the only ones left in the compartment and the train was rumbling to a stop.
“Come on, get your things,” Will said. “We’re here. There’s snow outside.”
“Really?” I rubbed my eyes to clear the sleep out of them. The light from the compartment was strong enough to illuminate the area just beyond the edge of the tracks. There was a low bank of snow beside us that came into focus as the train slowed. A soft, floating snow filled the sky. In the reflection of the window, I saw Daniel staring at me. I turned and he smirked.
“Get your beauty sleep, hero?” he asked.
“Something like that,” I replied, pulling my bag down from the overhead compartment.
Will stretched on his toes, but still couldn’t reach his overhead bag. I went to grab it but he snapped, “I’ve got it.”
“Alright. Just trying to help,” I said. I knew Will was sensitive about being short, but he usually wasn’t a jerk about it. I saw him glance over to Daniel and realized he was trying not to look bad in front of the older boy.
Will climbed on the chair, jumped up and hooked his hand through the handle on his bag and dragged it down.
“Well done,” Daniel said to him, patting him on the shoulder. “Hunters always find a way. I hope you’re in my squad at the Academy.”
Daniel and Eva walked to the front of the train, leaving Will grinning from ear to ear.
“Oh please,” I said. Will’s little hero worship of Daniel was starting to get to me.
“I notice he didn’t ask the fat kid to be in his squad,” T-Rex mumbled. “I hope there’s a snack shack around here.”
“Two middles,” I said. “Middle of the night. Middle of nowhere. I’m guessing we’re not finding snacks anytime soon, buddy.”
“I’m going to starve,” T-Rex groaned.
I reached into my backpack and dug around, pulling out my last granola bar. I handed it to T-Rex.
“Awesome! Thanks,” T-Rex said.
He ripped off the wrapper, devouring it in seconds. With the last half of the granola bar in his mouth, he looked suddenly guilty. He spat the half-chewed bar into his hand and asked, “I’m sorry, did you want to share this?”
I looked down at the mushed up granola bar in his hand. “It’s all you.”
He grinned and stuffed the food back into his mouth. With my stomach growling, we followed Eva and Daniel off the train and onto a small wooden platform lit by a single old-fashioned lantern. The train gathered steam and chugged out of the station, disappearing quickly into a tunnel of trees. We all looked around. There was nothing in any direction. No village. No road. Nothing. I looked to Eva for answers.
“Was someone supposed to meet us?” I asked.
Eva looked at Daniel who seemed embarrassed. “We must be a little early,” he said.
Eva shook her head and drew her sword. “We can’t stay here. We’re too exposed. Let’s go.”
“How far is it?” Will asked.
“Far,” Eva replied.
Eva jumped off the platform and strode down a trail. The rest of us gathered our things and trudged after her. I didn’t like the thought of a long walk through the snow in the middle of the night, but I admit I enjoyed seeing Daniel squirm.
I looked into the dark forest, filled with black shadows and strange noises. I swallowed hard and tried to push back the fear rising up in me. In my head, I conjured up all types of monsters that could be lying in wait for us among the trees. But nothing in my imagination could have prepared me for what happened next.
Chapter Three<
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The forest quickly turned dark as the little light from the train platform faded behind us. I hadn’t seen it before, but there was a road that led away from the tracks. Covered with snow, it was hard to see, but once we were on it, it was clear to see the swath cut through the forest. A half moon slid out from behind the clouds and painted the snowy landscape a silvery hue. We walked in a single-file line with Eva in front, Will, T-Rex and I in the middle, and Daniel following in the rear.
It wasn’t long before the bitter cold seeped into my clothes. I was without gloves so I stuck them deeply into my pockets to try to keep them warm. My sneakers were no match for the heavy, wet snow and soon I added my toes to the growing list of body parts I couldn’t feel. Daniel walked up next to me, looking warm and smug in a fur-lined jacket, heavy gloves and moccasins.
“Are you all right? Want to borrow my jacket?” he asked, the mocking tone in his voice unmistakable.
“No, I’m fine. I grew up in the mountains, so I’m used to it,” I said, trying not to let my teeth chatter.
“Sure,” Daniel said. “If you say so.”
Just then, Eva crouched to the ground ahead of us and took cover behind a tree. I followed her lead and hid as well. Daniel ran low to the ground to Eva’s position just ahead of where the rest of us stood.
Eva indicated toward a spot in the road. There, barely visible in the shadows, was a dark, hulking figure positioned against the trees. I squinted, trying to make out what it was, but it was too far away. Whatever it was, it didn’t belong in the forest. Then the shape moved and a soft neigh of a horse drifted through the air. With that piece of information, my mind put together that I was looking at a horse and carriage. I marveled at how Eva had been able to spot it from such a distance.