Path of the Specialist

by Pedro Urvi

  The presence of the bodily aura was something new which he had not been able to perceive before. It must be the result of his new skill. Very interesting. He would have to go deeper into the meaning of it. He looked at Camu and what he saw left him speechless. He recognized the little creature’s mental aura, which he knew well. Entwined with it he found a new one: that of his body, which was also made up of infinite colors forming a single shade, which shone brightly with a special glow. But this was not what left him speechless. On the little creature’s chest he saw a third aura, a round one, which gave out a powerful glow the same color as those of his mind and his body. For a moment Lasgol did not know what to think. Could he be seeing Camu’s soul?

  He took a step back, closed his eyes and blinked hard to see if his eyes were tricking him, but no. The three auras shone powerfully, particularly the one on Camu’s chest, whose brightness burnt the eyes. Puzzled, he focused on himself and got another huge surprise. Just as he had with Camu, he saw three auras in himself: that of his mind, the one which enveloped his whole body, and a further one in his chest. What did this mean? What was this third aura? He looked at Astrid and saw that she did not have the aura associated with the chest.

  He shook his head. Astrid did not have it, so it could not be the soul or anything connected with it. And then he realized. The aura was over his pool of inner energy. Over his power. That third aura represented the existence of magic and the size of his power. This new discovery left him in awe. He looked at all the auras of the three of them, then opened his eyes.

  “What’s the matter?” Astrid asked. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah... everything’s fine...”

  “You look a bit strange.”

  “Surprised, I guess.”

  “Yes, and kind of lost.”

  Lasgol smiled, to reassure her. “I can’t be lost. I’m with you.”

  Astrid’s face lit up. “You’re my sun,” she said, and kissed him.

  Camu reappeared and began to dance joyfully, wagging his long tail.

  Astrid was very interested. “What have you found?” she asked.

  Lasgol told her as best he could, although it was difficult to explain. He was not sure whether she had understood.

  “I have an aura?”

  “Yes, it seems we all have. In fact more than one.”

  “How come?” she asked, even more intrigued.

  “Well, I think it’s part of the same one, but I can see two different ones in every person.”

  “You’re not telling me one of them is the soul?”

  Lasgol smiled. “No, nothing spiritual. I can see the bodily aura of the person or animal and their mental one. Don’t ask me why. It’s just what I see.”

  “How curious... and you think Magi and Sorcerers see them the same way?”

  He snorted in frustration. “I wish I knew, but in fact I have no idea. I guess if I can, so can they. And they can probably see more things... other auras... I don’t know.”

  “Don’t worry, you’ll learn. There’s no hurry, you’ve got all the time in the world ahead of you.”

  “I hope so. And I’ve found out that there’s a third aura in some of us.”

  “The one that represents magic?”

  Lasgol was astonished. “How did you know that?”

  “It’s logical. You two have magic, and I don’t. I have two auras and you two have three.”

  “You’re pretty intelligent.”

  She smiled. “I’d say I’m more smart than intelligent, but I’ll accept the compliment.”

  “I’d say both,” he said, and returned the smile.

  “Then you’ve developed a new skill, right?”

  “Yes, it’s new.”

  “What are you going to call it?”

  Lasgol thought about this for a moment. “I think that as I’ve developed it from the Animal Presence skill, I’ll call it Presence of Aura.”

  “Presence of Aura. I like it.”

  “It’s a bit frustrating to learn like this, by experimenting, by trial and error, but it’s the only way I know.”

  “Well then, go on doing it,” Astrid said. She gave him an encouraging smile.

  Camu went on dancing and giving little shrieks of joy.

  Lasgol could not help but feel very happy.

  Chapter 17

  Gisli assembled them beside the Misty Forest. It was the highest forest in the valley, above an embankment shaped like a horseshoe. It had been given that name because most of the time it was covered by a fog low and dense enough to be cut with a knife. Autumn was approaching, and with it the cold and the mists. That morning the forest was covered by a white veil that left them unable to see more than two hand-spans ahead.

  “It looks haunted,” Luca whispered to Lasgol.

  “It gives me the creeps.” said Erika, “and it’s not because of the cold and damp.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s not haunted,” Lasgol said. He was trying to encourage his partner, but without much confidence. The valley was very strange, and he was used to expecting anything from unknown places.

  “I wouldn’t mind exploring it,” Axe said.

  “You’re a brave one,” Erika said. There was admiration in her eyes.

  “Or a bit reckless,” Luca added, smiling.

  “I’d say both,” said Axe.

  The four of them laughed.

  “I see my young pupils are in a good mood today,” Gisli said. He was approaching them from behind. Beside him was a Norghanian Bloodhound, and on his forearm a hawk with beautiful brown plumage.

  “So we are, Master,” Erika said with a smile.

  “I’m glad. Today we’re going to practice the specialty of Man Hunter.”

  “Fantastic!” cried Luca in delight.

  “Although the lesson is specifically for Luca, you’ll all do well to understand the concepts, so I’d like you to stay and listen and take part in the practical section, which I think you’ll find very interesting.”

  “Great!” said Lasgol, who was delighted to be able to participate and learn. He realized, more and more as time went on, that every day they spent with Master Gisli was priceless. His teachings, his advice, were lessons in life. They would help them to avoid dying when they left the Shelter and had to face the dangers of the missions they would be entrusted with.

  “Right.” Gisli gestured to them to sit down in front of him. “This is Rufus.” He indicated the bloodhound. “He’s delightful, but it wouldn’t be wise to anger him.”

  “Understood,” Luca said with a nod.

  “This beauty on my arm is Dawn. She’s so fast that if you blink, you’ll lose her. She’s a little sensitive, so you need to treat her delicately and lovingly.”

  “Of course,” said Erika, who was staring at the bird in delight.

  “I’m going to teach you two advanced techniques to use with Rufus and Dawn,” Gisli said to Luca. “They’re very important for the Man Hunter, because with the help of a hound and a hawk, no man will be able to hide and escape from you.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping to learn,” Luca said, though he had doubts as to whether he would be as good as Master Gisli expected him to be.

  “That’s what I’d love to learn,” Erika said enviously.

  “Don’t worry, what I’ll be teaching you today also concerns the specialty of Beast Master.”

  “Fantastic!”

  Gisli explained the advanced techniques for managing the two animals until they had fully grasped and assimilated them. Lasgol was happy to learn this way, with the Elder at their full disposal, with the animals at hand, so that the lessons were complete and not only theoretical. Every word of Master Gisli’s was engraved in his mind. Nor was he the only one. The explanations were masterly, and they all felt them as such.

  “Understood?” Gisli asked, wanting to make sure that his pupils had everything clear.

  Luca nodded, so he left it at that.

  “Good. Now we’ll pu
t them into practice.”

  Luca looked nervously first at Rufus, then at Dawn. “Which of the two do I begin with?”

  “With neither of them.”

  Luca was stunned. “I don’t follow...”

  “To learn to be a hunter, first you have to learn to be the one who’s hunted.”

  “Ah...” said Erika, who had understood this.

  Lasgol smiled. Poor Luca was going to have to be the quarry before he could be the hunter.

  “But don’t worry. I’ll be the quarry with you and teach you the tricks I’ve learnt over the years. They’ll have a job finding us.” He smiled at Luca and patted his shoulder encouragingly.

  “And what about us?” Erika asked.

  “You’ll take Rufus. Lasgol will take Dawn. Axe, you’ll be the archer. Marking arrows. Remember what I’ve taught you and the knowledge you already have about animals and tracking.”

  “We will!” Erika assured him.

  “Rufus, you go with her,” he told the bloodhound, rubbing his ears and pointing to Erika.

  She patted her thighs with her palms. “Come with me, handsome.”

  The bloodhound obeyed and allowed her to stroke him, which they both enjoyed.

  “Dawn, you go with him,” Gisli told the bird. He handed her to Lasgol, who reached out to receive her. The hawk hopped on to his forearm, which was covered with the statutory leather reinforcement. Lasgol noticed that she was perfectly trained. This was a difficult thing to achieve with hawks, which were deeply wary and fearful by nature.

  “Thanks, Master,” he said, feasting his eyes on the beautiful raptor.

  “Count up to eighty,” Gisli said, and went quickly into the misty forest. Luca ran after him.

  Axe counted as he prepared the bow and marking arrows. “Seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty… let’s go,” he said.

  At the entrance to the forest, the three of them realized that they would never find them unless they used the animals and the techniques Gisli had taught them, for the simple reason that the whole forest was shrouded in mist and it was impossible to see the ground they were walking on.

  “Here, handsome,” Erika told Rufus, so he would sniff where they had lost the trail. Following the techniques Gisli had given them, she put two fingers to her mouth and gave three long, shrill whistles. Then she pointed with her fingers at the spot where the hound needed to begin. He gave a deep bark in response and began to search. They waited, giving him time, and Lasgol wondered whether he would find the trail in that dense fog.

  He did.

  Rufus led them through the trees and the mist. Lasgol, barely able to see, tried to tread carefully. He had to make sure not to spook Dawn, who must certainly have been very unhappy about going into a mist-shrouded forest with a stranger, as he was to her.

  In the depths of the forest it was damp, and what with the fog and the vegetation they could barely see a thing. Lasgol tried to find the trail, without success. He was tempted to use his talent but decided once again that it would not be fair to this exercise and in particular to Luca, who was hiding somewhere in the forest, so he rejected the idea.

  It looked as if Rufus had picked up the trail and was keeping to it. They would soon find them. Nobody escaped a Norghanian Bloodhound, but they were wrong. If Luca had been alone Rufus would not have lost his trail, but with the Elder’s help everything was different. Rufus stopped beside a stream and began to sniff in every direction. Erika guided him, trying to make him find the trail again, but without success.

  Her shoulders drooped. “He’s lost it...”

  “It’s Gisli,” Axe said sadly.

  Lasgol smiled. “Yes, the Master knows too much.”

  “He’s capable of tricking a hound...” Erika said. She looked disbelieving.

  “Well, the terrain and the conditions are helping him,” said Axe.

  “Even so, it’s quite an achievement,” said Lasgol. “And anyway, I think he’d manage it even if things were less favorable.”

  “What are we going to do?” Erika asked.

  “It’s Dawn’s turn,” said Lasgol. “Rufus brought us here, Dawn will finish the job.”

  “On you go, then,” said Erika. She whistled twice. Rufus barked twice in reply and came back to her side. She welcomed him with sweet words and much patting.

  Lasgol got Dawn ready as Gisli had taught them and released her. The bird soared, gathering height, and flew over the forest. He wondered whether she would be able to see them, because the fog was at neck-level and very dense. From above it would be even more difficult, and he was certain that Luca and Gisli would be hidden at ground level. He put his fingers to his mouth and gave three long whistles in imitation of a bird’s call.

  Dawn replied with three shrieks and flew rapidly back and forth over the area. Lasgol knew that there is no better eye than that of a hawk, but even so, in those conditions and against an Elder... Suddenly the bird shot down at amazing speed.

  “She’s found something!” he shouted.

  The three ran to the place where she had landed, with Axe carrying his bow at the ready. When they reached the spot, they found Dawn perched on a figure stretched out on the ground.

  “There she is!” Axe said.

  “Dawn, to me!” Lasgol called. He gave two long whistles, as Gisli had taught them. The bird obeyed at once and flew to his forearm.

  Axe released an arrow at the figure on the ground. “Gotcha!” he cried triumphantly.

  “You think so?” came a voice from behind him.

  Axe nocked an arrow and made to turn, but never managed to. A knife had appeared at his throat.

  “Drop your weapon,” Luca said.

  “Hell!” said Axe.

  Lasgol and Erika turned to find Gisli aiming his bow at them, ten paces away from Luca. He pointed at the figure on the ground. “It’s a decoy to fool Dawn.”

  “Ohhh,” said Erika under her breath, deeply disappointed. “I thought we had you.”

  “Almost, but no.”

  When Lasgol looked more closely at the figure, he realized that it was wearing Luca’s jacket and Gisli’s boots. On its head were a couple of locks of their hair. He found the idea fascinating.

  “I’ll teach you how to make a good decoy,” Gisli said when he saw that Lasgol could not take his eyes off the figure.

  “It looks so real.”

  “This lesson is important. Even our colleagues who are practically infallible can be deceived. It would be very unusual if you came across someone as skilled as that, but all the same, you should be prepared for it. Never believe that just because you have a bloodhound and a hawk or owl with you, the success of the hunt is guaranteed. It never is. You’ll have many more chances, true, because they’ll provide you with invaluable help, but even so, never be too confident, never. Is that all clear?”

  “Like an icy stream,” Erika said.

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “That was a very interesting exercise,” said Axe.

  “Now we’ll do it again before the fog lifts. Luca and I will be the hunters. You three will be the quarry.”

  “Ohhh...” Erika grumbled.

  “Hide. Luca and I will set off and start chasing you.”

  Lasgol and Axe looked at each other. They did not stand a chance, but they would try.

  And as it turned out, they never stood the slightest chance. Luca worked with Rufus and Dawn and followed Gisli’s instructions. They searched the forest and found all three, and although Axe tried to trick them with a semi-decoy, he failed. The three were hunted down despite their efforts.

  “You did very well,” Gisli said encouragingly.

  Lasgol was not convinced that they had done so well, but he nodded.

  “Thank you, Master.”

  Gisli beckoned to Luca and took him aside. He put his hands-on Luca’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Don’t imagine that these conditions are extreme or unfair. In Norghana, this weather is perfectly normal in many regions. Y
ou’ll come across fog and dense forests you can barely walk through. You’ll have to pursue your quarry at night, with no visibility at all. That I can assure you. The enemies of the realm know how to use adverse conditions for their own benefit. You’ll learn not to be defeated, and you’ll conquer them yourself. There won’t be an enemy capable of hiding from you, from a Man Hunter. Whatever the conditions of the terrain, by day or by night, or whether it’s taking place amid a winter blizzard, they won’t be able to escape from you, Man Hunter.”

  “No they won’t, Master,” Luca assured him. The Elder’s words had touched his soul, and his face showed it.

  “Being a Man Hunter is an honor and carries a heavy responsibility with it. Many lives will depend on your success in your missions. Always remember that. It’s not your life that’s at stake, it’s that of innocents. If a murderer escapes, he’ll kill again. If a bandit escapes, he’ll rob again and steal from the innocent. If a rapist escapes…”

  “He won’t,” Luca said confidently.

  “That’s good.”

  Erika, Lasgol and Axe watched admiringly, aware of the importance of the specialization Luca had chosen. Lasgol wanted Luca to achieve it, to become a Man Hunter at the end of the year. He deserved it, and he would be a magnificent Hunter, one of the best. He had both talent and honor. He would serve Norghana unceasingly, and Lasgol knew he would do a great deal of good for people, particularly the weakest and most vulnerable, such as the farmers, shepherds, and woodcutters who suffered the lash of bandits, deserters and other such vermin. Luca would deal with them, and Lasgol knew it.

  “Tomorrow it’ll be the turn of the Tireless Explorer,” Gisli told them. “I’ll be waiting for you here at dawn.”

  Axe was moved by this. “Very good, master,” he said, and they left.

  They came back the following morning and found the forest once again covered with the same thick mist.

  “Today you’ll like the lesson and the exercise,” Gisli assured them.

  Lasgol and Erika exchanged a look which suggested that they were not sure whether he meant it seriously or as a joke.

  “Here, take these.” Gisli handed them quivers of elemental earth arrows.