Here's the fourth chapter of meh story! I tried really hard to make it slow, so if it seems too slow to you, plz tell me! This one only covers one day, and I tried to get in as much detail as I could. So plz read and review~!

Disclaimer: Do we really need this? I've already said it three times…

Summary: Kurt is a Fallen, an indescribably beautiful race of demon–angels. Kitty is a fledgling priestess with a hidden power. Kitty knows that Kurt isn't her enemy, but can she prove it?

Fallen Angel

4. Training

Kitty sat by the edge of the balcony of the house she'd been assigned. She wondered how everything had turned upside-down in a matter of days.

Last week, she had been normal, her life normal, with the exception of watching the Forest every now and then—but what kid didn't? Everyone she knew had once dreamed of adventuring in the Forest, no matter what the dangers were.

Then her world had been shattered by the arrival of Kurt, and her letters sent with Fira. Just as she was picking up the pieces and beginning to put them back together, her life had been utterly changed again—with the attack on the Forest, releasing the elemental power (at least it had worked for her, though) wings forming on her back.

Now that she was putting the pieces together for the third time, would her fragile self-control be crushed once again? She didn't know anymore. Who could she trust? That word was coming up a lot in her thoughts these days—trust. Is that what it came down to? Whether or not someone could be trusted?

Kitty hugged her knees to her chest, looking out on the deceptively beautiful sunrise—from Treehaven you could not see the fire-ravaged section of the Forest—only the tops of the trees' leaves that had been stained by smoke.

Kurt appeared next to her. "Kitty? What are you doing out here?"

"Watching the sunrise," she muttered. "Kurt?"

"Yah?"

"Do you…do you think the humans will attack again?" Kitty's voice shook slightly as she thought of the raw power she'd unleashed that night, and shuddered at the thought of repeating the experience. Her mind told her though, As if you could!

"It's possible," Kurt conceded, sitting down next to her. "But, they also need time to prepare, as well as we do. This is why you're coming with me."

"Huh? Where are we going?"

"You need to learn to control your powers. So you'll train with a separate element every day. I can do fire, Fira's water, Shade's dark and light, ummm…" he thought. "Kyana—you don't know her—will do earth, Riau—you don't know him either—is doing air… Did you know lightning's a really rare element?"

"No…does anyone here have it?" Kitty was intrigued by the idea.

"Currently, there are only two Fallen in Treehaven that know lightning's powers—although she's already teaching you one element, Shade has agreed to do lightning for you… The other person was too busy anyway." Kurt paused. "You're studying…lightning today, I think…"

"Really?" Kitty blinked and got to her feet. "All right…Take me wherever I'm supposed to go." She held out one hand. Kurt grabbed it and with a poof of smoke, they were gone.

The two appeared in a sandy hollow, studded with a few rocks, in the Forest, ringed by trees, but they were near enough to Treehaven that Kitty could see the edges of the houses.

"So this is where you train?" Kitty looked around. "Huh…"

"You're finally here, eh?" The familiar voice made Kitty look up. There, perched on one of the trees, was Shade.

The dark-haired Fallen landed in front of Kitty, skidding slightly on the sands. In one hand she was tossing a lightning orb up and down. She grinned evilly. "So, you up for it?"

Kitty had gradually learned that when one is learning from Shade, the best thing to do is to be blunt—no beating around the bush, no long waiting to come up with an answer, no blank looks—Shade preferred if you said that you didn't know—if you didn't, naturally, it would turn out to make you look like an idiot in the near future. Unfortunately for Kitty, she had to resort to saying "I don't know" to a majority of the questions and/or attacks she was trying to learn—simply because she was, sadly, unlearned in the realm of Fallen fighting—with or without the aid of elements.

Once again she had answered, "I don't know," leaving Shade to growl at her extreme incompetence as she looked up at the sun, gauging how long their training session had been going on by the position of the sun.

Kitty sighed—she had been up since dawn, been forced to try to tap into her powers—which, by the way, weren't working—and on top of it all, there was the tension in the Forest that was stretched tight like a rubber band, any second ready to break and send them all into a terrible war.

"Shade?"

The Fallen girl glanced at her. "What now?"

Kitty looked at the ground. "Do you think I'll ever be able to master this?"

Shade looked at her evenly, her expression giving nothing away. Her eyes seemed to be weighing her options—as if she were wondering just how much to tell Kitty.

"Kurt believes you will," she said quietly. "And I believe him. Now, do you want this to have been a total waste of our time, or do you actually want to achieve something tonight?"

And so it went on.

Instead of waiting for Kurt, Kitty had decided to try and fly back to Treehaven—she hadn't yet tried her wings, and was curious to see if they actually worked—they certainly didn't look like they could hold her up, as they were still a bit raggedy-looking; but she took a deep breath and leaped into the air, wings pumping furiously to gain enough momentum.

Then with a single flap she was free from the downward pull of gravity, set free like a songbird from a wire cage. She drifted along the currents, reveling in the utter, simple joy of flight. It was like nothing she'd ever experienced—and even though she hadn't experienced much before, her knowledge was gradually increasing—she had even learned a little from her first day of training, with Shade; though the Fallen girl could hardly be counted as a great teacher, she at least didn't take no for answer (although 'I don't know' was a frequent one).

Kitty soared over the treetops, the setting sun highlighting the autumn leaves in swirls of color—orange, yellow, some reds, and, of course, the pale greens still evident in the topmost leaves.

There was a slight bamf sound next to her, a small ring of smoke and flash of light and suddenly Kurt was beside her, flapping his wings as he found himself not on the ground, but in the air.

"You like flying?" he asked.

Kitty nodded; to try to express her feeling about flying for the first time seemed to be impossible.

"It's…" she tried to think of a word.

"Wonderful?" he supplied.

She smiled. "Yes. Wonderful. I understand why I wanted to be a Fallen as a kid."

"You did?" His look of surprise was astounding; she nodded. "I always wanted to fly. And the Fallen have always had wings, so…"

"Ah. Yah, it's very nice."

Of course he thought that—he'd been living with wings for his whole life. Attempting to change the subject, Kitty asked, "So don't you want to know how my first training session went?"

Kurt chuckled. "Was it hard?"

"I could barely answer any of the questions! Where does she come up with them? I mean, seriously, who taught her all of that stuff about lightning anyways?"

"The other lightning-bringer. Try not to be too hard on Shade—it took her ages for her element to show—we were all shocked when she had lightning as well as dark/light…having more than one element is a rarity among us, though not impossible." Kurt blinked in the bright light of the now-orange setting sun.

"What does that make me?" Kitty asked softly.

"You? We are not sure yet," Kurt answered truthfully. "There has never been one such as you before. A human with all the powers of the elements? And then becoming Fallen? Definitely never happened before, as far as I know."

"Oh." Kitty looked down at the houses below them. "Where is my house anyway?" She had never seen Treehaven from above before; thus, she was utterly lost—not that she would have been able to go anywhere had she been on the 'ground' in Treehaven; the tangled Fallen dwellings were hard to navigate past and the networks of rope bridges were even harder to follow.

"Your house…is over here…" Kurt's eyes narrowed as he picked out the slightly green thatching of Kitty's designated house. "This way," he called, grabbing her hand and tugging her away from an air current. Kitty tumbled after him, still not quite adept at flying, though getting a little better so she didn't quite lurch around so much—as this was the first time she had ever attempted flying, mainly due to the fact that she had never had wings before, never mind the fact that her tattoo must have been like a beacon of weirdness to come.

A downwards pull on her hand caused her attention to snap back to reality: they had arrived at her allotted house. Kitty fluttered down next to Kurt, watching the last of the sun's rays disappear over the horizon as twilight began to gather over the serene Fallen village.

"Thanks for bringing me home," she said quietly, breaking the thin silence that had stretched between them.

"You're welcome," he murmured. "It was my pleasure."

Kitty looked at him silently. It was strange how he had become her closest friend so quickly. His glowing eyes flicked over to her. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she said quickly.

And before she realized she was doing it, she reached over and hugged him. He blinked, seeming startled.

"Sorry," she muttered, looking away.

"No, it's all right. But I should be going. See you tomorrow?"

"Sure." Kitty watched him fly away, thinking of how close she'd come… she shook her head, shaking the thoughts away. Never mind that. She had some sleep to catch up on.

And not even she noticed the crow perched in the tree, its beady eyes fixed on her, before it flew away, cawing.

So that's the end of the fourth chapter~ If I wasn't clear, I'll be trying to update this every Saturday - if I don't, it's because I went on vacation (not likely because of school) or was booted off by my parents (actually very likely, in fact) If it is a vacation, I will post an announcement. Thanks, guys~! Review, plz! And I will update this on this Saturday too, just so we're clear.

~Shadey