Kurt spent the majority of the first week reading, and playing out certain Bible verses in his mind. Imagining him self present during specific episodes of Jesus' life. He would then replay the memory of what has happened to Stefan over and over again; each time he would try to see what the life of his savior could teach him about the event. By the end of the first week, he was feeling a growing sense of peace and acceptance. And by the eve of the second week he was preparing to enter into a round of more intensive prayer and reflection.
Where as Kurt had spent his first week in search of peace, Kitty had spent hers receiving a crash course in bladed combat from a man who happened to have blades as part of his anatomy… Logan had to admit that he was impressed. Kitty's stubbornness and determination had made her an excellent student. She was always willing to push herself further just to show him that she was capable. Within the first three days, she had practically become a marksman with the throwing knives.
Currently Logan and Kitty were taking a break from their close-quarter fighting exercises. Kitty wiped the sweat from her face and sat on a log. She picked up her water bottle and enjoyed a long cool drink. Then looking around for a while she appeared lost in thought. Logan himself had closed his eyes and was breathing deep and evenly. Then he was pulled out of his rest as the young woman spoke,
"You know, I never would have imagined as a little girl reading all of those fairy tales that someday I would be in the very forest Snow White lived in, receiving fighting instructions from someone like you.
Keeping his eyes closed the man spoke, "Life's fulla crazy shit."
She laughed, "You are such a philosopher Mr. Logan."
He had to chuckle himself at that, "You know kid, I don't rightly remember all the places life has taken me, I have these hazy foggy half memories that I am not sure are real. I'm not sure I ever was a kid, let alone that he would have imagined he would end up being someone like me."
Her blue eyes appraised him for a moment, "Like, still waters do run deep." She teased.
He grinned and looked her in the eyes, "Like I said, Life's fulla crazy shit."
"I'll drink to that!" she held up her water bottle than took a drink. The two fell into a comfortable silence for a while. Finally she stood up and announced, "Well, I'd better check on our fuzzy blue monk..."
She retrieved her binoculars and climbed a nearby tree deftly and with an ease that The Wolverine had to admire. Kitty really was full of surprises. She was far from the simple shallow valley girl that people pegged her as. He knew that after this mission she would be well capable of holding her own in almost any given situation.
Once she had climbed high enough, Kitty brought the lenses to her eyes and focused them in on the cave that her unsuspecting friend had been calling home. The blue teen was kneeling in supplication at the feet of the statue of Mary, eyes closed, fingers working a rosary. "I hope you find what you are looking for Kurt," She thought to herself, "I can't bear to think of you in such pain." What happened next nearly made her fall from her perch, as the subject of her thoughts turned and seemed to stare right at her. She was startled to say the least. Could he see her? Her fears were laid to rest as he turned away and resumed his silent prayer. However, she still felt a bit worried.
Climbing down, she reported to Logan, "No change. Although for a moment, I almost thought he saw me…"
"Not likely. I mean the kid is observant, but he aint that good. We are about a mile and a half from him."
She took this in and then asked, "Just how observant is he?"
"Well," He began, "Kurt and I are pretty similar in some respects. We are both 'feral' mutants, meaning that we have certain animal traits." She nodded; the classification system for mutants was part of the X-Man training, so this was not new to her. He continued, "But you knew that already. Other wise you wouldn't have bothered with your decoy last week. However, Kurt's spent the better part of his life trying to be hidden and unseen. That's taught him a lot about paying attention to his surroundings, as well as things that interest him."
"Such as?" she inquired.
"Lets just say that the Elf probably knows the freckles on your face as well as he knows the rosary." He answered.
His choice of example caused her to blush furiously, as well as caused her heart rate to quicken. A fact that The Wolverine picked up on, "Seeing as your heart rate's already up, what say we get back to today's exercise?"
Kitty just groaned.
Kurt was taking a break from his prayers to eat a simple and light lunch, a lunch that would have surprised his friends at home in its seeming meagerness. The prevailing theory being that the boy had a black hole where his stomach should be. And that could be true sometimes. He did have an accelerated metabolism; ripping a hole in the fabric of space-time did tend to take a lot of energy. However, he had not ported in nearly two weeks, and prayer was not terribly taxing in the physical sense.
His attention was attracted by a loud croaking sound above, like stones being clacked together. He glanced up and his face cracked into a wide grin, "Hello mein friend." He thought as the large black bird circled ever closer to the ground. The raven landed on the head of the Virgin Mother and Kurt approached it. "And was news have you brought me today?" He wondered to himself. As he came closer to the bird he noticed the shiny object hanging from its beak, "Sehr Interessant!"
Author's Note: First, Thank all of you for your wonderful and encouraging responses. Second, sorry for the shortness of the chapter. I live out here on the West Coast in the Bay Area and we are getting royally slammed by a major storm system. Four storms down, one more to go (and they say that the next one will be bigger than the four previous, and it is set to strike tonight!) I am already without water (been without for three days), and power is a fleeting concept these days. So I wanted to ask everyone's preference; I can try and post the remainder as either one long chapter, or two chapters roughly as long as the current one's have been. You're call people. Either way expect some brief action in the next chapter.... It's pretty much time for Kitty's final exams. hehe.