*Disclaimer: If you recognize it it's not mine (most likely) and even so, this isn't making me any money...*

Chapter 1

A New Belt

2010

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Silence. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ah!" screamed Camryn as she woke up with a start. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Grumbling Cam slammed her alarms silence button, and took a quick peek at its face. 6:45. Well that's just great! She looked out the clear window to a bright sunny day and sighed. She was always amazed at how bright it could be early in the morning of an Albertan summer, even if it was late August. As Cam thought about what today brought she started to feel nervous. Today is the day. I can't believe I finally get my black belt, she thought to herself, "Wow!" In a daze she got slowly out of bed and stumbled down the pale pink hall to the bathroom. When she finished brushing her mahogany hair and perfect white teeth she almost ran back to her room stripping off her soft star covered PJ's thinking not that I'm done completely, I still want to know more, that is if I'm not late first! It takes a whole hour just to reach his place and I'm supposed to be there by seven thirty!

Cam sighed at the fact that she would be lucky if she got there half an hour late. After climbing into a pair of jeans, and a deep blue tank top she shuffled out her door and down the stairs stopping at the computer room door by the base of the stairs which was emanating a faint yellow glow. Heaving another long winded sigh she walked through saying, "What are you doing up, mom?"

"Couldn't sleep. I hope you have fun and enjoy the transition. I'm really sorry I can't come." This was Amber, Cam's suspiciously young looking mother. She had smooth, straight, blood red hair, that never got frizzy, startling grey eyes, and a light tan that made her skin looked like it held some of the suns' light and reflected it to produce a subtle warm glow. She may have been forty-two but you would never be able to tell that she was any older than twenty-five. She was still wearing her PJ's, which consisted of a pair of black shorts and a loose but close fitting red tank.

"That's ok, I didn't think you'd be able to anyway."

"I'm sorry, see you later sweetie. Oh and don't forget to bring Logan back, I haven't even met him since he became your new trainer six months ago."

Again that flinch, what was with her and the name Logan? "Course, mum." Cam turned around and stepped out of the room and paused before turning back, "Oh, have I mentioned yet, that he's an X-Man?"

"An X-Man… Who?"

"Do you know any other X-Man that has Logan as a name, its Wolverine, duh."

Amber froze and her eyes went wide, "Wolverine?" she whispered slowly.

"Yeah, see you later mum." Cam waved and rushed down the hall.

When she reached the front hall of their classic Victorian style home, she laced up her shoes, grabbed the truck keys off the shelf and went outside. The air was cool but it was supposed to get hot during the day so she was a little guilty when she turned the heat on in their used forest green Jeep Wrangler after she started it. As she revved the truck to warm the engine, she thought about what her mother had said and tried to picture her trainer, Logan, in her house.

This is going to be interesting. She thought

Turning off the unmarked road near Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Cam pulled into her usual spot in the small round parking area beside the hidden dirt driveway, and stole a look around the magnificent clearing. From the evergreen trees that shadow the cedar wood door of the cabin to the swaying maples that covered the two vehicles underneath, and all in between; she had always admired the beauty. Cam couldn't believe that the clearing was only discovered by her mentor and teacher. He had done and amazing job with the space by adding a small log cabin and garage that doubled as storage shed. The last thing that demanded her attention was the big, mean, but extremely glossy, Harley Davidson motorcycle, that was splattered with dirt and mud. She ran her eyes over the flames on black finish and couldn't help the sigh that escaped her mouth, she had always wanted to ride Logan's bike but he always avoided answering her question by changing the subject, he was so good at that. Shrugging off her usual squirmy feelings she walked up to the door in the direct center of the cabin.

"Logan?" She called when she stepped into the bright open space of his living room. The cabin was simple and only held the necessities. The kitchen was in the corner to the left of the door behind a small countertop. A small couch was slightly away from the wall facing a brick fireplace. Directly beside the sofa was a small coffee table that held a small black and white photo of a woman who looked strikingly similar to her mother. Next to the photo were half a dozen empty beer bottles.

The only other thing in the room was a slightly dated lamp that sat on a small ledge on the other side of the sofa. The lamp was rarely used though because of the natural light filtering in through the large window that created the ledge the lamp was on.

"In here." was his smooth reply. Cam peeked around the corner to his bedroom which was on the right side of the cabin, and noticed him pulling a white muscle shirt over his coal black hair and tanned muscled back. Logan was a man of vary few words, most of the time.

When they had first met he happened checking up on the school, or so he said, when she got into a fight. She had attempted to use karate against her 'opponent' but when she tried to kick him she lost her balance and he grabbed her foot, causing her to fall to the ground.

That was when Logan stepped in; he seemed to come out of nowhere when he was suddenly gripping the duelers' wrist and twisting his arm behind his back and shoving him to his knees. The crowd that gathered gasped in surprise as they came face to face with the famous X-Man, Wolverine, well famous to them anyway. She had been quite surprised to find that he was shorter than most average men these days, only 5'7, but one thing she wasn't surprised about was the cigar that stuck out of the side of his mouth. She had heard a lot of rumors about him and the other X-Men from her mutant friendly school that was an extended link of Xavier's school for the gifted, and apparently this particular rumor was true.

After he let the subdued student go, he turned and faced Cam with a slightly tilted head and a face that showed no emotion, but his eye brow was raised in question. She didn't know what was going through his head then and by the look on his face she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

The crowd watched the two of them eagerly as Cam got to her feet waiting to see what would happen next.

She had known Wolverine's legend fairly well and she had to admit that she was extremely frightened of him but also in awe.

It was a few moments of awkward silence before he spoke, with a small smirk on his face. He reached up and removed the cigar with his right hand, "Who taught you to fuck up a fight?" He was staring at her mud splattered face, making her feel uncomfortable, but she was too stubborn to look away.

"Look who's talking… I've seen you on occasion, in pictures and on the news, and guess what? I ain't seen anyone else drenched in as much blood as you, especially their own."

Cam saw his eye twitch, but nothing else about him faltered.

"What's the fight about?" He asked her, changing the subject.

"Since when do random people concern you, hmm, Wolverine?" Cam smirked but the smile faded as the muscles in his jaw tightened and a low growl slid through his teeth, before he caught himself and relaxed.

"You should see you face kid, priceless." Then his demeanor turned serious. "Would you like to learn how to fight on your feet rather than your ass?"

It was definitely a surprise when he offered to teach her to fight; it was just as shocking as him showing up at her school, period.

"Do you always offer to teach strangers how to fight?" She questioned, honestly curious and wanting to know more about this supposed animal. It made her want to take his offer, and also, she knew that she really did suck because her karate instructor really shouldn't be instructing.

"Think about it." He turned away from her in an almost disappointed/ disapproving way so he could go back to his Harley, which gleamed where the sun touched the paint.

Logan had walked a few feet away before Cam found her voice again, and what she asked wasn't just curiosity but it had also been to stall him from leaving. "What brings you to good ol' Canada?"

It worked; he paused, then turned around to face her again. He looked slightly confused by the question, and he scratched his cheek through his long sideburns, then took a hefty drag on his cigar before answering the question with a question. "What da ya mean?"

Before Cam could say anything the gym doors that led onto the school's field where they were standing opened and the Principle came out, looking grumpy.

"What's going on here?" the burly man's voice came. Principle Luis was tall about six feet and heavily muscled, not unlike Logan. "Prince Luis, we were, I, we…" a boy from the crowed stammered

"Save it Terrence." Prince Luis held his hand up in a shut up or you get detention fashion.

"Prince Luis?" Logan burst out laughing, not even trying to be discreet. Amazingly though Principle Luis didn't do anything but a small smile started at the corner of his lips.

"Yes, that is the affectionate nick name this large group of annoying teenagers has given me. I should have known a fight would break out the second you turn up."

Barley containing his amusement he slowly made his way over to Prince Luis. "Well, Prince Luis…" he chuckled, "Everything good here?" Logan stopped just in front of Prince Luis and looked up at his face. Cam saw no trace of panic at the difference in their size even after Prince Luis used his mutant power to grow in size till he stood no smaller than eight feet high.

Being an empath with telepathic abilities like her mother Cam picked up a bit on Logan's mood, he felt confident with himself to the point of excitement when a fight could happen, but other than the surface emotions everything else deep down felt primal. Suddenly on the astral plane Cam felt the walls of Logan's mind shut and push her out. She didn't know he had psychic shields.

She looked up from where she stood staring at her feet with her eyes closed in concentration to find Logan staring at her with narrowed eyes. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. She hadn't even notice that she tuned in to him, guess she needed more practice.

He just grunted in acceptance, he must have it happen all the time at the institute but he still didn't look happy.

"Did Charles send you Logan?"

"I was already coming this way, he just asked me to stop by when I had the time." He looked west towards the Rockies and back to Prince Luis.

"Well it's certainly been good to see you again Logan."

"Yeah, you to Stevens."

Logan turned around and started to walk away but stopped when he was opposite Cam. "One week, that's how long I'll give you to decide." He started off to his bike again.

"But… how will I find you?" Logan stopped and took a drag on his cigar, then turned his head halfway back to answer her question.

"You won't have to, 'cause I'll find you."

After he was gone and Prince Luis had dragged every last detail out of Cam about Logan's offer, he had gone on and on about how Logan was a good guy with rough edges and that she should take him up on the offer, but at the same time was telling her to watch her back because he was dangerous, even to himself. Hell everyone knew the Wolverine was dangerous, but the part that confused her was that out of everyone he could have offered to teach, he had offer it to her.

She still didn't get it.

"Can I come in?" He turned around to face her and gave her a bit of a glare. She glanced at his face, it had long rich but closely shaven sideburns that come down to but not on his chin, his eyes an attractive but cold cobalt blue that gleam silver in the right light, and his skin, heavily tanned suggested he'd spent most of his life outside. Absolutely not the look of a drunk smoker like prince Luis said he was.

He shook his head, "you'd better get ready so we can get to your mom as soon as possible, since yeh've put us behind schedule." He turned back to what he was looking at on his bed, clearly a dismissal.

"Ok." As she said this she headed out and around to the second door on the wall, the bathroom. To my mom? She thought, how does he know about that?

After she left Logan opened his eyes and looked down at what he had laid out on his bed, his magnificent sword and a black belt. He couldn't remember where he got them from or what he had gotten them for, but his best guess was that they were from Japan. However he did know that the sword was a meitou katana, one of the Japanese named samurai blades; how he knew this he wasn't sure, or where the blades name came from. Ornthrond was its name but of course like the rest of his past he could only remember the bits, and this bit didn't include what the blades' name meant.

The sword its self had three main colors, red, black, and gold. The lower half of the scabbard was metallic red with black flecks and there was black decoration accented with gold on the bottom. The upper half was red dyed leather with more black and gold decoration and a black rope grip. The hilt of the sword had a black round guard rimed in gold, decorated with gold images of battling samurai. The grip had a base of red leather, which looked as if it had been designed to look like scales, with raised black leather wrapped overtop. The pommel was decorated similarly to the base of the scabbard. It was a beautiful sword that looked as though it was meant to be a wall piece but Logan knew otherwise, even though the blade was unmarked he could tell that it had at least once met the edges of another.

The strangest thing about this sword was not its condition or in any way how it looked but how it felt to Logan. It was as if the blade called to him; he could always feel it when he was near it. It was something that he had never experienced with anything before.

He picked it up off the bed and slid the blade out of the scabbard five inches and stared at the three small holes that were spaced half an inch apart from each other. The holes seemed purposefully made to Logan as they were very precise in dimension and spacing, however he didn't know why, as like with everything else. The holes also had no interference with the blades integrity. He closed his eyes and placed the sword tip first in the corner of his small cramped bedroom and covered it once again with a sheet to conceal its presence. Going back to the bed Logan grabbed the belt and the left the room with a loud bang of the door.

Outside behind the garage in a small spot where he had earlier set up a small table Logan laid the belt on it. The belt was a dark black, inlaid with a continuous silver gold loop that sparkled in a crisscross pattern on the thick fabric. He was glad that it would finally be in grateful hands and be taken care of; it had been sitting in his small room for a long time.

"I'm ready." said Cam walking up, in a pair of black yoga pants, black shirt, and a dark brown belt; she had pulled her thick long burgundy hair into a ponytail. She glanced at Logan with eyes that matched his completely, though hers lacked the silver gleam, as she entered the small space of grass they work on and bowed.

"Wow, it's so beautiful!" said Cam as she tied the special black belt to her thin waist.

Logan was looking her straight in the eye when she lifted her head to meet his gaze, and he spoke, "you must promise me something."

"Anything!" She said and then thought about what she said and that he may ask for a promise she couldn't keep.

"You must take care of this belt better than the others, it can't be replaced.. Please tell me you'll take good care of it." Cam looked at him breathing a huge sigh of relief; this promise was at least one she could definitely keep.

"I swear." With that they headed back inside so Cam could change.

As Cam changed Logan went back to his room and once again uncovered Ornthrond. When he reached out and grabbed the elegant but menacing hilt he felt a familiar drive to go in a specific direction (this time west); the feeling like he needed to find something. Instead of ignoring it he contemplated the urge. This time a different feeling came with the regular, he had a feeling he wasn't coming back to this place anytime to soon. So as a last decision he buckled the attached leather strap over his shoulder. When the buckle connected Ornthrond's hilt protruded over his right shoulder. Satisfied and the urge temporarily stifled he headed out to wait for Cam by the vehicles. After a few feet Logan halted with his wide eyes locked on the vehicle that Cam drove. Going up to the Jeep he noticed a long shallow scratch that stretched from the wind shield to the grill, but multiplied three times with the middle one slightly longer.

"Wow! What's that on your back? Is that a katana?!" Asked Cam, as she ran up from behind, then in concern, she asked, "What's wrong?" When she noticed he mentors stiff stride.

"Never mind the katana, how long have you had this vehicle?" He walked slowly up to the hood and ran his right hand along the triple scratch that was permanently set into the deep forest green paint using his index, middle and ring fingers.

"I don't know, for as long as I can remember, before I was born maybe; why do you ask?" Cam was confused; she had no idea why the scratch, that looked like it had come from a cougar or a large cat, would bother her teacher when nothing else seems to faze him, and why would the age of her jeep matter? Sure it was old, but it worked. That's all that mattered.

"Just thought I recognized it from somewhere, that's all." When Logan touched the scratch on the freezing cold hood, he knew that he himself had put there, many years ago. With a deep sigh he turned to his bike and got on, put in the key and revved the engine. "You ready to go?" From inside her jeep Cam nodded and pulled out letting Logan fallow.

As they were winding down the long logging roads before reaching the paved, Cam noticed as she looked out her rearview mirror that Logan didn't have a helmet on. He also looked like he was a little annoyed because she was going slowly to save her tires. How strange she thought as she reached Hazel Ave. She looked once again out the rear view mirror and saw Logan shake his head and smile, she laughed once and sped up, knowing that it still wouldn't be fast enough for him.

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