This is a series of Grimm based one shots.
I welcome your feedback, suggestions, and ideas.
...
The education of Kelly Burkhart
Grimm Suspense/adventure
Characters: Kelly B (grimm), Monroe's father Bart (Bludbad), Bart's old army friends
...
It's a black late fall night in the forest. There's no moon and the forest is filled with the drizzling of light ice cold rain. A young boy is racing as hard as he can to escape through the darkness. He stops to hide in some low bushes as he nervously looks around and listens intently. Freezing cold water drips off the leaves onto his wet hair and face. His lips would be blue if anyone could see them - but they can't in the darkness. He doesn't feel the bone chilling cold though.
His heart is racing and he is breathing heavily. He closes his eyes in the darkness and focuses on calming himself down while listening. He is forcing himself to be perfectly silent and become the forest. He quietly rubs his hands on each of the plants around him and smells their scents among the earthy scent of forest leaf litter. He pulls one up as silently as possible and rubs it all over himself. He is crouching low and trying to conceal himself in the darkest recesses under the bushes. Soon the werewolves are running into the clearing. Their red eyes are the only light that shines in the blackness. They are sniffing to pick up the boy's scent. They have lost him. They fan out sniffing intently to pick him up.
The boy bolts out of the bushes a different way. He is racing again as fast as he can to escape. Maybe he has lost them, he can't see anything but he can hear them behind him.. He uses his senses to guide him - dodging things in the forest as well as he can.
They hear him and are on his trail in an instant as he darts through the bushes and trees. They will catch up quickly - but he has escaped for now. The boy pushes himself against a large tree to hide and listens again for them.
Now a set of yellow eyes gleam and a set of giant long white teeth show in the tree above him. Silently it drops down onto the boy - but the boy's instincts caught the slightest sense of him in the darkness and raced out from under the silently falling death. Now the giant sabertooth cat-man is silently moving through the darkness on the trail of the boy. He isn't like the werewolves - this one moves quickly with no sound. There are no footsteps in the leaves, no breaking twigs, no cloth rubbing on brambles, no sloshing of wet boots, and no scent of tobacco and bacon. The night birds sing unaware because this one does not disturb the forest animals as he moves. He glides past even the most cautious animals without giving away the slightest hint of his proximity. This ghost is also hunting the boy.
The giant sabertooth Movidant has followed the boy to the edge of a clearing. He can hear the werewolves running through the forest as they hunt the boy. "Bloody elephants" he mutters. The nightbirds are silent - he smiles. There is the slightest muffled crunch. He whirls around with fangs and claws bared and catches the boy as he leaps out.
The boy wraps his arms around the cat's neck and exclaims "Gotcha Uncle Charley - You are 'it'!" The giant cat transforms into a smiling old man "Ah, ye caught me! Good lad! Ye're learnin!"
Soon the werewolves catch up and the boy jumps up and hugs the first one "Hey Grandpa! I caught Uncle Charley tonight!" They smile a huge smile and all transform back into old men. Then they smile and clap the boy on the back while winking at their old army friend Charley. "Great job Kelly!"
His Grandfather gives the boy a hug and tousles his hair in the inky darkness "You are really getting the hang of running through the forest in the dark. I don't think you hit any trees this time, and you stayed out of the brambles too. You did a much better job hiding this time and I see you found the Wolfsbane".
The boy is beaming and excited "I'm Ready! Let's go again!"
The old men are all breathing heavily and holding their sides. "Now Kelly, Grandpa and his friends aren't as young as we once were. It's time to go back to camp and call it a night." "Aawww Grandpa! How about tomorrow night." "Tomorrow night is knife fighting. And Thursday is sneaking up on animals in the forest. Remember - you still need to catch a rabbit without killing it before we move to raccoons and deer. How about Friday night?" "Ok!"
The boy is beaming a huge smile and runs off into the blackness ahead of them on his way back to camp.
The old men are sharpening the boy. They are following the ancient Wesen tradition of honing every instinct, sense, and ability to a razor's edge like their fathers and grandfathers had done with them when they were boys.
The boy still hasn't "Fanged out" yet so they don't know what sort of wesen he will be. Everyone except Bart assumes he will be some sort of Bludbad/Fuchsbau mix. They are all amazed that the most backwards and intolerant man they know is dealing with that as well as he is. He hasn't told them about this one - the half Grimm half Hexenbiest that they all love like their own son.
He is the son they all wish they had. The one who comes back from every trial and tribulation stronger, faster, and more alert than the last time. The boy they push to the very edge of death over and over and then he is ready to go again with a big happy smile.
Darkness and being blindfolded had been the boy's biggest challenge so far - especially running and fighting in darkness. He had a lot of trouble because it seemed like his instincts and senses weren't kicking in like a Wesen's ought to. The boy refused to give up and was determined. They finally saw a huge change in the last few weeks - darkness was no longer an obstacle. The boy could sense his way around like they expected him to now and moved just as quickly in the dark as in the light.
Bart was relieved. This was yet another day he didn't have to tell his old friends that their very favorite son who they were pouring all their efforts, hopes, and dreams into was a Grimm.