Through a Wolf's Eyes

TCRI

     Donnie and Pulverizer stayed in the dojo for another hour before they were called to meet up with the others. By that point, I had climbed down from the tree and watched them train. A lot of what Pulverizer struggled with, Donnie had me demonstrate to him, hoping it would get through his tiny head. He also kept a sharp eye on Pulverizer for me. There were a couple of times I thought he was going to reach out and grab me, but the purple masked turtle was ready to block any attempt.

     After they left, Sensei emerged and got me started on my training. After a quick warm up and a review of what Raph had started me on so far, I was given a new set of basics to practice. According to Sensei, it was to warm up to using my full body and adjust to using more than fists and feet. Apparently, as Timothy has demonstrated, fighting was the use of your full body, not just a particular area.

     I stood in the middle of the dojo. Splinter had gone into his room to make a cup of tea. One, two, knee. One, two, kick. One, two, knee. One, two, kick.

     I was very focused on what I was doing. Donnie and Raph had pointed out that my posture was awful and that I needed to work on my balance as well. Sensei had caught on to that too. Hopefully this exercise would also be helpful in that area.

     One, two, knee. One, two, kick. One, two, knee. One, two, kick.

     The rhythm I was going at was soothing. It was meditative.

     One, two, knee. One, two, kick.

     I wonder how I was doing in their eyes? I was already impressed with myself. I slowly started to go for over an hour in training the last few days. According to Raph I was picking up on training basics quickly.

     One, two, knee. One, two, kick.

     If I kept at this pace maybe-

     The doors to the dojo were slammed open. Caught off guard, I went to face whoever had scared me, but with the momentum of me turning and how fast my leg was returning to its position, I lost balance and fell on my bum.

     "Oops... Sorry."

     I felt myself staring. April O'Neil softly closed the door behind her before facing me again. Her eyes were a lot bigger in real life than I expected. They were very big, unnaturally blue and doll-like. She wore the same yellow jersey as she did in the show and from what I could tell, her hair was in a pony-tail. I don't know what difference I was expecting, but here she was in all her glory.

     "You're Alex, right?" I waved and she grinned at me, "It's nice to see you awake. Sorry I haven't been able to meet you yet. You're usually in your room when I'm here."

     I smiled awkwardly. It's a good thing I couldn't actually say that I was purposely avoiding her. As a cartoon character, I didn't particularly care for her as I felt the show creators really jumped the shark on her story, not to mention her relationship with Donnie felt forced. Maybe I was just jumping to conclusions, but I wasn't ready to meet her... Now I actually had too.

     "Sooooo..." Apri seemed to be at a loss for words as I sat on the floor, "How have you been adjusting here?"

     I started signing to her and realized mid-sentence that she was totally lost. After a sigh I just gave her a thumbs up. If she didn't understand sign language then at this point I could really only answer yes or no questions. Sensei typically phrased his questions in a yes or no fashion if Donnie couldn't be there to translate. Raph and I used a notepad, but it was in Donnie's lab and I couldn't just walk past her to grab it without explanation.

     I finally stood as she watched me for a long time before speaking again, "How's training going for you? It's kinda hard, am I right?"

     I gave her another thumbs up.