Destiny lays with her stomach facing the fire, sleeping soundly thanks to the exhaustion from her hunt, Leonardo's lap acting as her pillow. Leonardo stares at the fire and absentmindedly strokes her curls, occasionally looping one around his finger. Raphael groans and flops over, bored out of his shell, while Donatello leans against a nearby tree and stares up at the foliage as he ponders their predicament. Michelangelo hums to himself, shell turned to his family.
"What the heck are you doing?" Raphael asks, annoyed by the consistent noise.
"Baking a pizza," Michelangelo answers. He spins around and displays his creation to the others. "Berries, spider eggs, and worms on a thin slice of bark, covered in mud sauce. Mmm, mmm, mmm!" He grins and leaps over to Raphael. "Here, Raph, try a bite!"
He shoves the imitation pizza into Raphael's mouth. He retches, claps his hands over his mouth, and spits it out in a waterfall of nasty. Raphael growls, turns to his brother, and tackles him with a shout. Destiny jolts from her sleep with a startled bark, claws unsheathed. Raphael and Michelangelo keep hustling, rolling over and over as they shout and grunt, and they careen right into the path of a young woman and the baby that she's cradling to her chest.
The woman gasps as her baby starts crying, instantly ceasing Raphael and Michelangelo's fighting. The woman clutches the baby tighter, eyes slightly narrowed. "Yokai!" she cries.
Leonardo, Donatello, and Destiny get to their feet and go into submissive positions, hands raised and cautious smiles on their faces as the woman stares at them in utter horror.
"It's okay, it's okay," Leonardo says as Raphael and Michelangelo get up and back away. "We're not gonna hurt you."
"Yeah, we're friendly Yokai," Raphael says.
"Check out the cute eyes," Michelangelo pipes up. He musters the biggest, anime-style goo-goo eyes that he can, but the woman looks no less calmed.
She backs away, her baby crying even harder. Destiny's ears flatten against her hair and she tucks her tail between her legs as she crouches low to the ground. There's a shout from behind the woman and Saki appears, leaping between her and the five mutants with a sword at the ready.
The teenagers seem to melt into the trees, the turtles hiding behind the wide trunks as they ready their weapons while Destiny moves completely out of sight. Saki's blade glints in the moonlight.
Leonardo's gaze darts to his nearest brother. "Mikey, we need an exit," he says, his words a yell but his volume stuck at a whisper.
"I'm out of smoke bombs, dude," comes the hushed response.
Raphael readies his sai, the faint sound of ringing metal resonating in the air, but Saki's sword impales the tree he's hiding behind and nearly turns him into a turtle shish-kabob. With Raphael startled, Saki lunges around the tree and smashes him in the jaw with the hilt of his sword, sending him sprawling to the forest floor.
"Fear not, Shen," Saki snarls as he looms over the fallen turtle, weapon aimed. "I will destroy these wretched monsters. Hyah!"
Michelangelo wraps his kusarigama chain around the blade and jerks it, momentarily knocking Saki off balance. Leonardo swoops in and lifts Raphael to his feet, helping him run away. Saki yanks his sword free and launches a kunai at the retreating turtles. Donatello appears and sweeps across, deflecting the kunai off his bō. The three turtles disappear in a moment.
Michelangelo blows past, making Saki turn with a gasp. The others peer out from a cluster of trees, eyes narrowed.
"Now's our chance. We can change the future," Raphael whispers. "We can take Shredder down."
YOU ARE READING
Forest Mutation (Book Two)
Fanfiction"In Saskatchewan, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd watch the moon and think about how across the country and over the border, you were probably out on a rooftop beneath the same moon. You were the first person I enjoyed the moon with. Every other ti...
