Chapter 25
Devilish Guide
The first morning of June dawned warm and bright. There wasn't a cloud up above to block the warm sun or mar the pure blue of the sky. Birds sang their unique songs as light breezes sent ripples drifting across the long grasses of the plain. The world of nature went on about its own business ignoring the six horses that marched on. Grasshoppers munched on the nearest greenery uncaring of the human-bearing horses in their midst. Honeybees buzzed about in search of sweet nectar without paying any notice to the traveling humans. No creature took any mind of the strangers among them or their mood.
"That was a waste of a week!" Bobby called out.
"Enough with the complaining." Logan grunted in irritation.
"One whole week and not a single clue!" Iceman moaned.
"We get the picture Bobby." Jean muttered.
"Bobby, please just stop talking." Kitty sighed.
"I said enough with the complaining." Logan growled.
"I wasn't complaining, I was merely stating the facts." Bobby protested.
"It sounded like complaining to me." The feral man grumbled.
"It did not!" Iceman protested.
"Yes it did." Kitty muttered.
"No it did not!" Bobby whined.
"Stop whining!" Kitty snapped, Jean and Piotr sighed, Remy shouted, and Logan snarled all at the same time. Bobby cowered in Blizzard's saddle.
"I think I'll be quiet now." Bobby meekly replied.
"Good." Kitty sighed in relief.
All the other riders relaxed on their horses. It finally seemed like they would be getting a short reprieve from Bobby's incessant complaints. Kitty leaned back in Phantom's saddle and tiredly rubbed her eyes. Once this journey was complete, she swore that she would never travel with Bobby ever again. She didn't care if the world would end unless she went with him, she wouldn't do it. Kitty idly stroked Phantom's gray neck as the dense evergreen forest loomed larger and larger before her. Despite the sun's warmth, she shivered.
Schwarzwald, the Black Forest, is truly a place to fear. It is an ancient place that shelters ancient things. All manner of mythical, legendary, and supernatural things are reported to inhabit the massive, dense forest that is forever condemned to darkness. It is the rumored home of mad mages, rebel warlocks, rogue sorcerers, evil witches, exiled wizards, violent bandits, and gypsies. The only 'safe' way to traverse this dangerous realm was to stick to the well-traveled trade roads that connected the few villages located within the forest to the outside world. Only the most desperate or foolish dared travel off the established trade roads. Kitty wasn't sure if they were really that desperate or if Bobby's foolishness had rubbed off on them all.
Their new goal was Stüttgart, capital city of the territory of Baden Württemberg. Stüttgart is a large city and a center of trade for the region so it was a good place to go looking for something. It also happened to be near the center of the mighty Black Forest. The normal way of reaching the city was to follow the safe roads that had been cleared for trade. However, these trails twisted and turned so much that it took almost four times as long to get there as it would if someone were to travel there in a straight line. The beginning of the nearest trail was almost twenty miles south of their current location, but they wouldn't be going there. Logan had decided that they would enter the forest right here and find their own way to Stüttgart.
Kitty struggled not to hold her breath as she and Phantom followed Bobby and Blizzard into the dark, forbidding woods. The twisted, ancient branches reminded Kitty of the clawed arms of monsters from stories that her cousins Philip, Thomas, and George would tell her to make her afraid of the dark. Within minutes of entering the Black Forest the light faded until it was almost like night around her. Never could she remember a day in her life where it had been this dark at noon. The densely packed trees and thick carpet of pine needles that covered the ground smothered the clopping of the horses' hooves and any other sound that the travelers made. It gave the dark forest an eerie quality that made Kitty shudder.
A low creaking sound avoided the trap of the trees and needles and found Kitty's ear. She stiffened in her saddle and held her breath. When the sound failed to repeat itself she relaxed and tried to make out her surroundings through the mid-day darkness. Then the creaking sound abruptly repeated itself and she tensed up again. Her blue eyes swept the darkness in all directions, but she still failed to identify the source of the creaking. Frustrated, she slumped back down and mentally scolded herself for getting jumpy over nothing. But then the sound recurred again and once more she stiffened up straight in reaction. Kitty's frustration grew exponentially as every time she succeeded in relaxing the creaking from up above would force her to stiff attention. She almost felt like screaming.
"My aren't we jumpy today?" A masculine voice with a distinctive Germanic accent teased from some where above her head.
"Nightcrawler, you ass!" Kitty shrieked. The line of horses came to a halt.
"Do I look like a donkey to you?" Nightcrawler asked curiously as his head emerged from the concealing branches above them. His glowing eyes reminded Kitty of a pair of fireflies.
"Yes, you're a blue, tree-climbing donkey." She snapped back sarcastically.
"Really? I never knew that." Nightcrawler mused to himself.
"What are you doing here?" Bobby asked suspiciously.
"Following you." The German cheerfully replied.
"Why?" Bobby demanded.
"Because you're not following the trail. Everybody follows the trail." He replied.
"If we were to tell you to go away and leave us alone, would you?" Kitty asked before Bobby could open his mouth again.
"No." Nightcrawler responded with a smile that showed his sharp fangs. Kitty sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she fought the urge to yank the German off his perch by his midnight hued hair.
"Do you know the way to Stüttgart?" Kitty wearily asked.
"Do I know the way to Stüttgart? Of course I do! What sort of question is that?" The Nightcrawler answered sounding mildly insulted.
"Well, if we can't get rid of you, then we'll put you to work. Lead the way!" Kitty mockingly declared.
"It would be my pleasure. Allow me to fetch my horse." The Germanic demon formally replied, completely ignoring the insulting nature of her declaration. Nightcrawler vanished back up into the trees and headed off to collect his absent black stallion. Kitty twisted the reins around one hand as she waited for Nightcrawler's return. God, please give me the strength to not kill him. Please, please, please!
Logan rode near the end of the line with his senses alert for danger. Every bit of color, every sound, every scent signaled something to him and none of it escaped his notice. No living creature, be it bird or beast, could pass within 100 feet without his knowledge of it. There was no way, short of using magic, that any person, friend or foe, could sneak up on him or those he protected. However, at the moment his greatest concern was not an outside force attacking them. He feared a possible betrayal from within.
He disliked not knowing things about people. One of his general rules was the less he knew about someone, the less likely he was to like, trust, and respect them. This meant that Nightcrawler was at the top of his 'disliked and untrustworthy individuals' list. No one knew what his real name was or where exactly he was from. The full range of his skills and abilities were unknown. And worst of all, his motivations were a complete mystery to the feral man. Without knowing why he did things it was impossible to guess what else he might do.
Wolverine eyed the others' reactions to Nightcrawler's sudden return. Kitty was of course very angry, she thought that she was free of him, but now he had reappeared. Remy looked rather amused, he found Kitty and Nightcrawler's conversations (if they could be called such) quite funny. Jean and Piotr looked a little confused but resigned to the German's presence among them. And Bobby looked strangely angry at the unexpected return of his savior. Wolverine raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. All the others he could understand, but Bobby's sudden change of heart needed some looking in to.
He sent his horse forward to Bobby's position. After pulling up along next to him Logan tried to discreetly catch the younger man's eye. Bobby, however, was so intent on glaring at the back of Nightcrawler's head that he failed to notice that Logan was there. Wolverine rolled his eyes and collected Blizzard's reins from Iceman's loose grip. Bobby remained oblivious as Logan pulled his horse to the back of the line. Remy gave the pair a speculative look but looked away and said nothing. Wolverine shook his head in disbelief as repeated poking and throat-clearing failed to capture Bobby's attention. Nothing it seemed could break Iceman's focus on the apparent source of his anger.
"Drake?" Logan growled threateningly.
"Hm?" Bobby grunted distractedly.
"Over here icicle boy." Wolverine growled. Bobby finally looked over at Logan and did a double take.
"Wha-?" Bobby started to ask in confusion.
"Why the angry glare?" Logan cut in.
"What angry glare?" Bobby asked back.
"The one you're pointing at Nightcrawler." Logan replied.
"What about it?" Bobby asked sullenly.
"Why are you doing it? I thought you liked him." Wolverine asked.
"Well, I did." Bobby mumbled.
"What changed it?" The feral man wondered.
"When he instigated that sword fight with Kitty." Bobby admitted.
"Well he didn't hurt her." Logan said quietly playing the devil's advocate. Bobby looked at him as if he had suddenly gone insane.
"That may be, but he could've killed her!" Bobby protested.
"But he didn't." Logan replied.
"That doesn't matter!" Iceman snapped.
"Why does it bother you so much?" Logan asked, though he'd already made a guess at the reason.
"I don't know him well enough to trust him with her in that sort of situation." Bobby explained.
"That's what I figured." Logan muttered.
"Uh, what?" Bobby asked in confusion. It seemed that he thought that Logan had been serious earlier.
"If it were up to you, would you tell Nightcrawler what it is that we're doing here?" Logan asked, changing the subject. Bobby looked even more confused.
"I'm not sure." Bobby hesitantly replied.
"Do you trust him enough to tell him?" Wolverine asked. Bobby's eyes hardened.
"No." Iceman stiffly replied.
"Alright then." Logan muttered.
That decided it for him. Unless something drastic happened to change his mind, Nightcrawler would not be told their mission. The fewer people that knew about what they were doing, the better. There was no way Nightcrawler could help them gather information without going into a town so there was no point to him knowing. The only use he had was to play the guide between cities, nothing more. So their devilish guide he would remain.