Logan was pleasantly surprised when he led the group back to the campsite and found Bobby and John each proudly displaying the fairly large trout they had caught. He verbally praised them and patted Bobby on the back once. There were five fish on the ground and John had another on his line. Logan didn't think he could have done any better if he had jumped in the river and speared the fish with his claws.

"Isn't that kind of unusual," Scott asked later, once they were a distance from the 'master fishermen', "That they caught that many fish in the half hour we were gone?"

Logan recognized the fact that Scott didn't want to hurt the boy's feelings but was nonetheless put off by the comment. "I doubt that this lake is fished much by humans. These fish don't know what a lure is."

Scott nodded. "Makes sense."

"Because I'm right. Now let them have their glory."

Scott almost looked hurt. "They have plenty of glory," he retorted while waving his hand to where the girls had flocked around Bobby and John. "Maybe too much. All they did was catch some fish."

Logan felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to rise in agitation. "They caught your dinner."

"I can catch my own dinner."

Logan snorted. "Right. McDonalds don't count."

Scott grew visibly angrier. He even took a dominant step towards Logan, his hand raised and pointing his index finger. "I'll have you know-"

The rest of what Cyke said was drowned out when John yelled, "Hey look! Testosterone fight!"

Scott's jaw snapped shut and Logan wondered how he hadn't bitten his tongue. "We're not gonna fight," Logan announced to the group, then lower and directed at Scott, "Not today."

"I'll be ready," Scott growled back.

"Better be," Logan said because he liked having the last word.

"So like, are we gonna build a fire or eat sushi?" Jubilee asked as she physically placed herself between Logan and Scott. Using her body, she herded Logan towards the rest of the group. "Show us how to make a fire out of two sticks."

"Everyone get two thin, medium sized sticks," Logan gave order, taking charge over his class once again. "Make sure they're dry. As the teens scoured the immediate area, frequently stooping to pick up twigs, Logan thought they looked like a flock of chickens at feeding time. "When you have a handful, line up over here so I can help each of you." Logan noticed Scott out of the corner of his eye, hanging back almost in the tree line and looking criticizing. Logan said nothing and decided to let the other man stew. When the last student joined the line, Logan took his position before them.

"First you put two one inch sticks across each other about seven inches apart, then put a few very thin pieces of kindling over them at angles and space them about one to two inches apart." He paused while each teenager accomplished the procedure with little difficulty. "Now put long, thin, small dry twigs on top. Leave enough space for the fire to breathe." The students acknowledged the fact and continued setting up their tinder on the ground. "Now put two more sticks about two inches wide over the ends of the thin sticks at angles. The larger pieces of wood won't allow the fire to blow away. Now, light your kindling."

The students looked at each other. Finally Peter spoke up. "Uh, how are we supposed to do that?"

Logan grinned. He knew where the matches were but this was supposed to be a test, wasn't it? "Rub a hardwood stick against a softer wood base." Logan looked at the teens and knew he had to clarify. "Hard wood snaps. Soft wood bends." He heard a couple frustrated sighs as the children returned to gathering sticks and twigs. When they had all returned and sat in front of their respective tinder towers, Logan instructed, "Cut a straight groove lengthwise in the soft wood and push the end of the hardwood stick up and down the groove." The teenagers almost groaned in frustration before Logan tossed each of them a Swiss Army knife from a nearby backpack. "The plowing action of the hard wood pushes out small particles of wood fibers. Then, as you apply more pressure on each stroke, the friction ignites the wood particles."

At some point during his instructions, Scott had crept forward and was watching the students with what looked like interest. As the teens busied themselves with the knives and wood, Logan asked, "Wanna try it?"

Scott looked at him and Logan wished he could see through that damn rose quartz. "I'm fine," Scott replied. "Good instructions," he added but it sounded forced.

Logan was no longer in the mood to fight. Instead, he turned back to the students, who were sounding unsuccessful. "Did I mention that no one eats until everyone has showed me that they can start a fire?" John grinned. "Without using mutations," Logan quickly added.

"Shit," someone cursed as John's face fell.

Jubilee threw her closed knife at the ground before her. "This is so hard!"

Logan left them to complain to each other and took a seat some distance away to watch. They were smart, he knew they would figure it out. He settled his heavy frame against a large oak tree and looked out on the water. The sky was starting to trade the sun for the moon. An owl hooted from somewhere in the tree above him as it began preparing for it's nightly hunt. The bird ruffled it's feathers and Logan soon inhaled it's dander. He rubbed his nose to mute the strange scent before Peter exclaimed, "Look, a spark!"

His attention focused on the small pile of tinder before Peter as the large teenager kept rubbing the sticks. Sure enough, a spark fell to the ground and glowed steadily from under the fragile tower of kindling. Logan allowed himself some pride as Peter threw up his hands in accomplishment. One down, eleven to go. Logan nodded his satisfaction when Peter looked at him.

They would be eating in no time.

o0O0o

One hour.

One freakin' hour.

He didn't understand. Hadn't he told them exactly how to make a fire? What more could he possibly have said to make it any easier? God he wanted a drink right now.

"I got it!" Jubilee exclaimed. The excitement in her voice overshadowed the frustration on her face. She was the last.

"Finally," a deep voice mumbled and Logan shot the shadowy figure a silencing glare.

"Good job," he said, smiling and adding a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Now let's eat."

Everyone nodded in agreement. It was getting darker quickly and soon they would be without any sunlight. Logan hadn't planned on the 'fire test' taking so long. Now they wouldn't have time to do anything else after dinner.

"All right kids, lemme show ya how to gut a fish." Logan said as he rose to his feet. Logan heard a muted popping sound and realized it was his own knees. When had that started happening?

Scott chuckled, low and in his ear. "Slowing down, old man?"

"You wish," Logan retorted. The echo in his mind sounded childish, but he didn't care. Logan grabbed the fish on the top of the pile and popped a single claw with a satisfying snikt. His hard eyes were glued to the quartz of Scott's glasses as he ran his claw down the length of the fish. Logan barely heard the feminine protests of disgust as he retracted the claw and dug two fingers into the trout's mouth, then pulled down.

Scott held his gaze the entire time, seemingly not affected. Logan was a little disappointed. A hunk of fish intestine landed on his shoe with a wet plop and Logan kicked it off. It landed at the water's edge.

"I wanna try!" John exclaimed as he picked up a fish and stood closer to Logan.

Finally turning away from Scott, Logan took a calming breath and focused on the students. The girls had backed up in a tight group, as if trying to disappear amongst themselves like zebras. The boys, however, were almost fighting over the remaining dead fish. Logan didn't interrupt them.

A branch broke. Logan stiffened and cocked his head, listening past the bickering teens and into the forest, past the dark tree line. There were no further sounds so Logan strained his eyes and searched the dark woods for the intruder. There, beside a 7 foot oak tree, were two eyes that seemed to be glowing from the firelight. Logan felt the hair on the back of his neck start to rise.

"What is it?" Scott asked, moving to stand just behind Logan.

Logan inhaled deeply and sifted through the onslaught of scents. He relaxed. Only a deer.

"It's only a deer," he stated, letting his shoulders sag. As if on cue, the eyes blinked and the figure bounded away, clearly flagged by an upright white tail.

The students were oblivious to the whole episode. Logan turned to them and winced when an ear-piercing scream vibrated in his ear drums.

"JOHN!" A brief pause. "That is SO gross! How DARE you!"

Clinging to the front of Jubilee's very nice looking T-shirt was a piece of slimy fish gut.

"Get if OFF! Right now!"

"Make me."

"Logan!"

Scott looked like he wanted to say something. Logan could handle this, even if his ears were ringing loudly. "John, stop throwing things. Jubilee, try not to yell so loud." He stretched his jaw and titled his head.

"But he threw fish guts on me!"

"I'm sure it was an accident."

"Yeah, it was an accident!" John echoed with enthusiasm.

Jubilee held up her middle finger for John to see.

"Hey now, none of that," Scott said, stepping closer. "John, please get that off of her and don't do it again. You're not five."

"Thank you," Jubilee replied curtly as she pulled the shirt away from her body. Before John could comply, the piece of intestines fell to the dirt. John smirked before the group slowly went about the task of preparing dinner. Logan was left looking at Scott.

"What?" Scott snapped, turning to face Logan. "You obviously had no control over the situation and-"

"I had plenty of control!" Logan growled. "You just gotta let 'em work things out for themselves." He was pointing now.

Scott held Logan's gaze a moment longer before visually checking on the teens. "They're humans, not wolves. They don't need to work things out, they need to talk things out like civilized people."

Logan had a feeling that Scott's words had a double meaning. Like maybe Scott was trying to make derogatory comments about how Logan was handling things. "They were talking," he said in a low voice usually reserved for his most hated foes.

"If you couldn't see the fight that was about to break out, then maybe you need to have Stryker take a look at your eyes."

That hurt. Logan was temporarily paralyzed with surprise. That was a pretty low blow for Scott. The guy must be dropping his balls. Logan huffed, hoping a retaliation would come to mind. He pulled his fist back when he couldn't form a comeback in his enraged mind.

Scott's hand was moving towards his visor when a soft voice stole Logan's attention. He turned to see Marie, shaking her head disapprovingly in an almost motherly manner. His fist lowered and once again, he vowed to get even later. Logan went to Marie and realized he must look like a dumb puppy. The feral half of him rejected that mental image viciously and longed to fight. Logan was proud when sanity took control of his emotions and he continued towards the group of teenagers. They were all pretty cool kids, so long as that opinion stayed to himself.

The fish were all speared and hanging over open flame. Logan couldn't be more proud. "Good job guys," he praised, then looked at Jubilee and added, "and girls."

"So did we pass the test?" Peter spoke up from the opposite side of the crackling fire.

"I'd say so," Logan replied, setting his heavy body down on the pliable forest floor. "As long as you don't burn supper."