Editor's note: This takes place a good decade or more before Excalibur even forms.

Its very late at night or very early in the morning, depending on your perspective. In an open field, not so far away from a still-sleeping circus, two young kids are out gazing at the stars.

"I wish you didn't have to go." the older, blue-faced one says, turning to his companion.

"I promised Mom that I would, Fuzzy. I don't want to leave all my friends here, but it's sort of for my own good. If it makes you feel any better, I'm gonna miss you the most." the young, pretty female replies.

"A piece of me is going to feel like its missing with out you around." he says holding her hands in his. A sad smile creases the girl's face.

"Just promise me one thing, Kurt," she says.

"Anything, Liebchen." he replies, looking her deep into her eyes.

"That you'll be here when I get back." she asks.

"Absolutely." he promises. "If I'm on the trapeze and I see you down below, I'll fall off on purpose just to land in your arms." Jimaine Szardos takes hold of Kurt Wagners's tail and gives it playful yank.

"You are the worst cut up, you know that?" she laughs. Her cheerful attitude suddenly vanishes as Margali Szardos, her birth mother and Kurt's foster mother appears up behind her and taps her on the shoulder.

"It's time to leave, daughter."

Jimaine looks back at Kurt and he can see the worry in her eyes. "Are you sure about this, Jimaine?" he asks moving a little closer to her. He's never more than mildly defied his foster-mother, but if this girl where to simply ask, he'd run away with her in an instant.

"I'm afraid I don't have much of a choice, I promised." she says, studying his shining yellow eyes. They both stand up and lock in a tight hug, "Bye."

"Auf weindersain, Liebchen." he replies. Jimaine moves next to Margali and waves to Kurt. Margali makes a few gestures and they both disappear in a flash magical energy. Kurt sits back down on the grass and looks out over the horizon for several hours, feeling empty inside. Unfortunately for Kurt, things are about to go from bad to worse.

Kurt finally heads back from the field where Margali had left with Jimaine. As he looks over the grassy hill, he sees smoke over the skyline. {BAMF} Kurt teleports down to the circus he has lived in for all his life. The big top is engulfed in flames and a lot of his friends are practicing there this morning. As much as he want to teleport inside, he can't for he might materialize inside the flames. He stands in front of the entrance, yelling in, trying to see if anyone is left inside.

"Kurt!" a voice yells. He turns and sees Jutta, one the girls that works at the circus and an apprentice fire-eater. She is standing with some of the other performers. Kurt runs over and points at the big top.

"Is there anyone else inside?"

"Yes, but you can't go in there!" she shouts.

"I have to get them out." As he turns to head for the burning tent, Karnin, the show's strong man grabs Kurt's arm.

"You don't have any chance of getting them out. Don't toss your life away!"

"Karnin, I don't have time for this and you know I can get away from you rather easily, so please let go!" Kurt pleads. Karnin lets go off Kurt's arm and watches as his furry friend heads for the big top. Kurt runs around to the back side of the tent, trying to figure a safer way in.

`I can't teleport in cause I have no idea where the fire is inside.' He looks around frantically and finds part of the tent that has burned away, leaving a small opening for him to shimmy threw. Kurt crawls threw and is nearly clobbered by a piece of burning lumber from the bleachers. He quickly moves on. He gets to front of the bleachers and yells to anyone who might hear him.

"HELLO!! IS ANYONE IN HERE!?!"

"Over.. {choke} ...here.." someone calls. Kurt looks and sees someone waving deep within the fire. Kurt doesn't see any other option but to run right threw the flames. He takes a deep breath and runs as fast as he can, jumping threw numerous flames. He finally reaches the one calling him. After patting out parts of his costume that started burning, he sees Stefan, his step-brother, kneeling over Markus, another performer. "Kurt, how'd..."

"Later," Kurt interrupts, "we're getting out of here.". Kurt looks up and sees the top of the tent coming down on them and he dives on top of the others.

Outside, Jutta and the others watch the entire big top collapse. She screams and starts to rush over, but Karnin holds her back. She curses him to let go, but he holds her from rushing into a useless action. He pulls her close to him and turns her back so that she can't see the rest of the tent burning, along with whoever might have been inside. Everyone is startled by the sudden appearance of smoke and brimstone as Kurt appears with Stefan and Markus. Kurt and Stefan are choking from the smoke, but Markus isn't moving. Jutta dives down and gives Kurt a hug.

"You scared me to death." she informs him, just in case he hadn't noticed.

" {chof..chaf} We would have been here sooner, but teleporting two passengers with a tent coming down on you isn't easy." Kurt says between gasps.

"Markus needs medical attention," Stefan says kneeling beside him, "he's barely breathing."

"I'll go find Steward." Eric says. Kurt watches as his best friend in the circus runs to find their local doctor. As Eric is heading off, Franklin, the owner of the circus arrives on the scene.

"Is everyone all right?" he asks, out of breath.

"Ja. Eric going to get Steward to look at Markus. Other than him, everyone else got out ok." Kurt says.

"Thank God. I was in town getting supplies when I heard about it. It's probably someone that jerk from yesterday hired." Franklin says.

"Who?" Kurt asks. As he'd been a little preoccupied yesterday, he'd no idea of the usual circus gossip for that day.

"Yesterday, some guy came into my office trailer and offered to buy the circus and I turned him down. He said that he would pay a lot for it and that it was pulling business from his carnival. He wasn't very pleased when I still said no. He was rather upset when he left." Franklin explains. Eric and Steward come around the corner. Steward examines Markus quickly.

"Who found him?"

"I did." Stefan says.

"How?"

"Just like that. I was on my way out when the fire started. I found him lying on the ground, but I couldn't get him to move." Stefan says.

"He's got inhaled a lot of smoke. We need to get him to my trailer." Steward says. Karnin picks up Markus and they head for Steward's trailer. Kurt lags behind as most of the others follow. He turns around and watches as the flame start to die down.

"Kurt, you OK?" Jutta asks, noticeing small areas of burned fur on his neck and face.

"Do you need to go see Steward, too?

"Yea, fine. Just a busy day and its only 8am." he says.

"If you are certain, then. I'll see you later." She walks away. Kurt looks up in the sky and shakes his head.

"Nothing like a crisis to take your mind off of... things. I hope you made it to wherever you were going, Jimaine." he says.

Kurt goes back to his trailer and plops down on the bed. He takes a recent picture of Jimaine off of one of the shelves along the wall and sits it on his chest. He runs a finger around the outline of her face and sighs deeply.

"I think that I'm in love with you, Jimaine. I wish that we'd had time enough together for us to really know. Don't stay away... too... long..." he murmers to the photograph as he trails off to sleep. The picture falls forward against his chest.

At about 11am, someone is knocks on Kurt's door.

"Kurt! Hey, Blue, we need you out here!" the voice says. Kurt wakes with a jolt and nearly drops the picture on the floor. After setting the picture back in its place, he opens the door and sees Eric there waiting for him.

"Come in, mein freund." Kurt says as Eric walks in. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, we just need to start making plans on what to do next. Franklin is hiring someone to rebuild the big top, but we need to do something for practicing and such in the meantime." Eric says.

"Is everyone else with Franklin figuring out what to do?" Kurt asks.

"Ja, he's waiting for us." Eric says and starts to head out. As Kurt walks out, he takes another look at Jimaine's picture and then follows his friend.

A couple of minutes later, they catch up with Franklin and the others,

"Kurt, good. There you are. We've been trying to decide on what to do. We have our spare supplies that we can set up in one of the fields until this crew gets our big top rebuilt." Franklin says. He looks at Kurt and notices that he is staring off into space.

"Kurt, did you hear me?"

"What?" Kurt replies looking at Franklin, "Oh, yes, that will work."

"Are you all right?" Jutta asks.

"Fine, fine. Just distracted." he replies, his mind still not quite focused on the here and now.

"Anything else?" Franklin asks the assembled performers.

"How's Markus?" Karnin asks, concerned about his friend.

"He'll be fine. He's going to be back practicing tomorrow with us." Franklin assures him.

"Did you find out who caused this?" Kurt asks.

"Not positively, but I'm sure it was that guy. I can't prove it though." Franklin answers. "Ok everyone, lets get to work. We have a show coming up in about a week. I just hope the big top is finished by then."

Everyone heads off for the open field near the trailers. They set up the three stage rings and some barrels for the clowns. Kurt, Karnin, and Eric work for about an hour setting up the trapeze and the high wire.

"Make sure to set a net. I'm sure you all don't need it, but I don't want to take any chances. With the fire and being moved out here, I sure that more then just a few of you are edgy. I don't want anyone ending up as a smear on the ground." Franklin orders. Kurt and Eric sets up the net without hesitation. Afterwards, Kurt and Eric sit down to rest for a minute.

"Kurt, are you sure you're ok? You don't seem like yourself today."

"I'm fine, really. I just have a lot on my mind." Kurt says, starting to drift off again.

"Come on, fur-ball, we have to start practicing or Franklin will have a cow." Eric says, giving Kurt a friendly punch on the arm. "Just keep your mind on what you're doing up there on that high wire." Kurt nods in agreement.

The two friends head over to the were the others have already started. Eric goes over to work with Jutta, while Kurt head up the ladder to the high wire. He stands in front of the high wire and looks down. Not a bit of dizziness or fright comes over him. After all, he has been doing this for almost as long as he could walk. He remembers when he was first starting to walk on the high wire. He would move the wrong way and the thin wire would cut into his foot, causing him to fall off. When the cut would land right in-between his two toes, it was extra painful. Fortunately, with constant work and lots of bandaged toes, he was able to work past that problem. Now, he has another problem to work through. As soon as he steps on the wire, it wobbles under his foot. Kurt steps back onto the platform, `Come on now, keep it under control' he thinks. He takes a deep breath and steps out. He's steady as a rock this time. He walks across the wire and back with no problem. He goes back out and doe s some jumps and some flips in the air. The wire waves a little, but no problem. His eyes slide down to Eric on the ground. He has his arm around Jutta. Eric and Jutta have been going together for several months and are starting to get serious. Kurt looks away before he loses all control again, for there is someone he would like to have his arms around also. Kurt takes another step and tumbles sideways. The wire flies out from under and he is falling towards the ground. Everyone turns and watches and Kurt hit the net. Eric and Jutta hurry over.

"Kurt, are you all right?" Eric asks helping Kurt off the net.

"Isn't that my line?" asks Jutta with a slight smile.

"I'm fine." Kurt says with major disappointment in his voice. It had been months since Kurt last fell off of the high wire. By the end of the night, Kurt has regained his regular form. He fell off a few more times after the first, but was able to complete the routine.

At about 9:00pm, everyone finishes and heads back to their trailers for the night. Kurt leaves for his trailer without saying a word to anyone. Jutta walks over to Eric and puts an arm around his waist.

"Eric, there's something wrong with Kurt. I've never seen him fall off the trapeze three times in one day."

"I know. What could it be?" Eric wonders, watching Kurt walk off.

"I wonder if it has to do with Jimaine leaving?" Jutta asks, trying to clue her beau in on Kurt's problem.

"That's probably what it is." Eric agrees. "Those two were always together. I think he liked her." Jutta smiles. Eric is the sweetest man she knows, but a little thick-skulled at times.

"Did she like Kurt?" Jutta asks to keep the conversation going.

"Who knows? She usually held her emotions inside from what I could tell." Eric replies.

Kurt gets back to his trailer and drops back onto the bed like that morning.

`I've never done that poorly,' he thinks, `And I know what the problem is...' Kurt turns over and looks at Jimaine's picture. "You've only been gone for one day and I'm going nuts without you here." he says. Kurt grins widely. "I'm curious to what it would have been like to do it once before you left. Although, now that I think about it, I don't think that you were as attracted to me as I am to you. Not that I'm upset with you or anything. After all, you could have had your pick of this place and you were my fantasy girl."

After a some reminiscing about Jimaine, he falls asleep. Several times during the night, his body goes threw muscle spasms from some very interesting dreams about him and Jimaine.

The next morning coes and fortunately for the circus and its performers the day goes by without incident. The performers continue practicing for the opening show coming up next week. Kurt manages to keep from falling off the high wire anymore. Markus and Kurt work on a new routine for the show that's suppose to make the audience scream for more. Karnin passes his previous limit by lifting 100 lbs and lifts a 1500 lb. lead block. Eric and Jutta continue to work on new illusions. The week passes faster then they expected.

Its the night of the grand opening performance and the repaired big top is packed. Everyone is ready and willing to perform... though some are more cheerful about it than others.

"I hate wearing this stuff." Kurt growls under his breath. "I REALLY hate it."

"I know you do, but would you rather have the crowd riot and come after you?" Franklin says, who also does the job of ringmaster.

"No, of course not... but I still hate this stuff. This makeup so hard to get out of my fur and I have to squash my tail into these pants." Kurt notices Franklin leaning against the wall with his head propped against one arm with an amused expression on his face, mouthing Kurt's complaint word for word.

"I know, Kurt. How many times have you told me this?"

"Let's see. If we do one performance each night for a week and just about two weeks a month. I've been performing with this circus for about 10 years, so... probably about 1200 times." Kurt says with a smile.

Franklin chuckles back ."Yes, so I do know how much it bothers you."

Kurt looks at the clock on the wall. "Its time."

Franklin nods and heads out to center ring and takes the mic from the stand. Kurt tugs on his boots, yet another damnably uncomfortable part of his performing costume. It's show time...

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE CIRCUS WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME YOU ALL. WE HAVE A SENSATIONAL SHOW FOR YOU TONIGHT. WE HAVE THE AMAZING STRONG MAN, KARNIN.." the spotlight moves over to the far ring where Karnin is holding up a 500 pound, cement block in each hand. "IN THE OTHER RING, WE HAVE THE SPECTACULAR DUO OF ERIC AND JUTTA, WHO'S MAGIC AND PYROTECNICS WILL ASTOUND YOU!!" The spotlight moves over to Eric and Jutta. Eric throws a burst of fire into the air and Jutta follows with a red burst from one hand and a green burst from the other. The crowd gasps and then cheers. "FINALLY, LAST BUT FAR FROM LEAST, WE HAVE KURT AND MARKUS WHO WILL ASTONISH YOU WITH THEIR DARING FEATS ON THE HIGH WIRE WITHOUT THE USE OF A NET."

The spotlight moves to the right side of the tent, where Kurt comes running out of a small entrance in the side. He does a number front flips in a row, then follows with an equal number of backflips. One the last flip, his feet hit the top of the center ring and he bounces into the air. He executes three flips and lands with both feet together and doesn't take so much as a little step. The crowd cheers and he forgets how much he hates the make-up. He turns as the spotlight slides over to the entrance on the other side of the tent. Markus comes out with backflips and bounces into the air. He does a twist in the air and lands continuing with forwards flips. He lands on the top of the center ring as Kurt did and leaps into the air. He executes one flip, his body stretching out fully, and lands without flaw. The crowd roars again.

"LET'S HEAR IT FOR THEM!!!" Franklin yells threw the mic and the audience cheer and whoops once more.

The performance goes on without an problem. Karnin lifts his 1500 pound block and heaves it into the air. The block lands with an amazing crash, that would have knocked Kurt off the high wire, again. Jutta and Eric dazzle the audience with their displays of pyrotechnics. They throw multiple fireballs into the air which transform into doves and fly away. The crowd stares in amazement and then cheers. Next, Kurt gets up on the platform at one end of the wire. He waves his hands in the air and bows to the crowd and they applaud back. Franklin is standing next to Karnin shaking his head. Kurt walks out on to the high wire and begins his show. He walks across to the other side of the high wire, with his arms down by his side, showing no effort. He does some hops into the air and some one leg balancing acts. The crowd gasps from Kurt's dangerous stunts. He finishes off by doing a complete headstand on the high wire.

"When did he learn how to do that?" Jutta whispers to Eric.

"He's usually out late at night when no one else is around doing stuff like this. Its the only way he can keep Franklin from having a heart-attack." Eric laughs. Kurt gets back to his feet and arrives at the platform. He does bows several times and waves to the crowd. They cheer and roar back.

"What a ham." Franklin says. Markus heads up to the platform on the other side of the high wire. He stands there and just waves once to the crowd. He moves out on to the high wire and does a routine similar to Kurt's. He adds in a couple of one leg turns and some double hops. He finishes up by doing a perfect cartwheel and landing on the other platform. He bows to the audience and they applaud back. As Markus is heading down the ladder, Franklin goes out to center ring.

"LET'S HEAR IT FOR THEM AGAIN!!!". The people stand and cheer. "NOW DON'T GO ANYWHERE, WE WILL BE BACK SHORTLY FOR THE LAST HALF OF THE SHOW." he says and walks off. Stefan comes up behind Kurt and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Excellent, Kurt! Well done." he concradualates his younger brother before walking into the ring to do his knife-throwing act.

"Thanks." Kurt replies to his retreating back. Franklin comes up behind Kurt and slaps his hand down on his other shoulder, causing the young mutant to jump about a foot in the air.

"What are you trying to do, send me to an early grave?"

Kurt turns and looks at Franklin. "Come now, mein fuhrer, where's your spirit of adventure?"

"It just went to the birds. When did you learn how to do that?" Franklin asks.

Kurt folds his arms across his chest. "Now you know we magicians never tell our secrets." he laughs. Franklin merely shakes his head again and walks out to the center ring.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE'RE BACK FOR THE LAST HALF OF OUR SHOW. WE'RE GOING TO START OFF WITH ERIC AND JUTTA, THEN GO TO MARKUS AND KURT AND WIND THINGS UP WITH KARNIN. ENJOY THE REST OF THE SHOW!!" Franklin heads off to the side entrance.

Eric and Jutta move their act to the center ring for more room and more effect. Jutta stands at one end of the ring and Eric at the other end. Jutta fires her pyros at Eric and he does the same at Jutta. The two bursts collide in the middle and erupt into a larger burst of multiple colors. The crowd is awestruck by the light show. They increase the power of their fire jets, making the eruption grow, until it starts shooting out small streams of light that pop when they hit the ground. The eruption finally dissipates and goes out. Jutta and Eric bow to the crowd and they applaud back.

Next, Markus climbs the ladder up to the high wire once again. He waves to the crowd and walks out onto the wire. A gun shot rings out, causing the entire tent full of people to jump. Kurt and Franklin look up at Markus, who is now plummeting to the ground. Before they can even react, he hits the ground with a thud.

"MARKUS!!" Kurt yells and runs out to him. Jutta screams and starts to head for him, but Eric holds her back. Kurt looks over his friend and hears a clicking. He looks up and sees a man with a rifle standing in the other entrance. The man points the gun at Kurt and starts firing. Kurt dives behind one of the pillars holding up the tent. The crowd dives down to take cover. Kurt squashes himself behind the thin pole as best he can. The man takes a look and sees a bulge coming from the back of Kurt's pants and takes aim. He fires and hits his mark. Kurt yells in pain and grabs the back of his pants. He brings his hands back around and sees blood on them,

"Damn! My tail!" Kurt looks around the pole and see the man drop the rifle and run off. Kurt immediately goes after him. Franklin and Stefan run over to check on Markus. Stefan sees Kurt going after the shooter.

"KURT, NO! DON'T GO AFTER HIM!!!" Kurt doesn't listen and continues after him. "Stubborn pup!" Stefan sighs and starts shoving his way through the crowd after him.

Kurt chases the gunman for about a minute. In that time, the back of his pants have completely ripped, letting his tail out. The man stops sudden and turns to Kurt. He has another smaller gun and fires at Kurt. Most of them miss, but one hits him in the shoulder and another in the leg. Kurt falls to the ground, holding his shoulder. The man walks over to Kurt and puts and foot on his chest.

"This circus is history, I'll make sure of it." he says, pointing the gun at Kurt's head.

He notices Kurt's pointed ears, his tail and fangs, "Ha, a demon on top of it. I'll do the public a service by killing you along with this worthless circus.". Kurt watches him pulling the trigger back... {BAMF}
{BANG}

The man's foot hits the ground, "Ha, all you have to do is kill them and they explode." The sound of imploding air is heard again from above him as Kurt comes crashing down on top of him. The man turns over to shoot Kurt again, but Kurt knocks the gun from his hand. He grabs Kurt's hair and rams his forehead into Kurt's nose, busting it. Kurt falls to the ground, holding his nose. Now he is pissed. He jumps up and tackles the man and starts pounding his assailant's face.

"Let see how you like your face mangled." he snarls. They wrestle around the ground for several minutes. The man's unfair fighting gets the best of Kurt as he delivers a punch to Kurt between the legs. Kurt grabs his groin and drops to the ground. The man picks his gun back up.

"Damn, I didn't think you demons had a need for them." he laughs. Kurt is to battered to do much else and figures this is it. He doesn't watch as the man puts the gun right against his head. "Tell your master I said hello." {BANG}

Kurt jumps, but feels no additional pain. The man with the gun falls over. Stefan comes running over to Kurt holding the rifle that had been used to kill Marcus. "Kurt, are you all right?"

"NO, the jerk punched me in the nuts!" he yells, in considerable pain.

Stefan is too worried about his step-brother to dwell on that. "Among other things." he aboserves, seeing Kurt's shoulder, leg, tail and nose. Franklin and Jutta finally shove their way out of the crowd.

"Kurt?" Jutta starts, then gasps at all of the blood.

"I'll be ok." Kurt says. "How's Markus?"

Franklin kneels down next to Kurt. "He...he didn't make it." Kurt looks over at the dead man's body and wishes he could have killed him, but at least he was dead. Franklin turns the body over.

"R. K. Rubert, the same SOB that tried to buy the circus from me. Someone go find Steward." Jutta and Stefan help Kurt to his feet and starts for Steward's trailer. Jutta takes a look at Kurt's tail.

"You're lucky Kurt. A couple inches lower and you would have lost your tail."

"I don't care. It didn't happen, but if someone could stop this blood from running down my face I would be grateful." He tries to laugh, but it hurts to much.

After a little more then a week, Kurt has just about recovered from his injuries. Still bed-ridden, he's busy writing a letter to Jimaine.

Dear liebchen,

Its been about three weeks since you left and I'm missing you terribly. I've been thinking about you a lot. I wish you would come back, at least to visit. It been hard around here lately, we've had a lot of problems. The first day that you left, the big top was burned to the ground. Then a week later, during our opening night here, Markus was killed by a gunman. I went after him, but he beat the crap out of me. He shot me in the leg, arm and tail, he busted my nose and punched me in the lower regions. I'm just about out of bed now and we're getting back to normal. We buried Markus a couple days after it happened. I really need you here, its been real lonely, with no one doing much of anything. We shut down the circus for a while to recuperate and its really boring around here. Come home soon.

Kurt stares at the signature for a few seconds, erases, and rewrites it.

LOVE,

FUZZY

Kurt puts the letter in the envelope and sits on his table to have it mailed. It irks him that he doesn't have the address to wherever Jimaine is, but Margali had assured him that she'll find a way to get his letters to her. Kurt lays back in his and continues to dream about the woman he cares so very much for.