First Impression
The first time Michelangelo saw one, he decided it was one of the most frightening things he'd ever seen. Startlingly tall and thin, its body was soft, pink, and shell-less. The creature's spindly limbs were wrapped in long, flapping folds that he thought might be part of its hide at first, until he remembered the orange band around his own head and realized the oddly-colored loose skin could be clothing. He could only see one small tuft of fur on the very top of its head.
It moved with a clumsy, lumbering gait, stomping almost aggressively as it walked. Its ears were large, but Mike could tell by the way it turned its head – or failed to – in response to ambient sounds that it couldn't hear very well. The eyes were so small and set so close together it seemed impossible that the creature could see; even so, the way it swept its gaze from side to side showed that its vision was keen. It didn't have any claws or fangs that he could see, but there was a chillingly intelligent gleam in the little eyes that sent a shudder of alarm coursing through him. Despite his natural affable curiosity, he instinctively shrank further into the shadows. He had no doubt that Master Splinter was right.
This creature was dangerous.
He pressed close against his father's side, taking comfort in the musty-sweet scent of soft gray-brown fur and the familiar warmth of the paw that rested on his head.
"What is it, Sensei?" he asked, whispering so softly that only the Rat's sensitive ears could catch his words.
Splinter chuckled low in his throat and knelt to wrap his arm affectionately around his young son's shoulders. "That, Michelangelo, is a human."
This little ficlet was inspired by a short story I read when I was about 11 years old – I don't remember the title or the author, but it was written from the point of view of someone whose planet was being visited by aliens. There was a very in-depth description of the bizarre-looking aliens...and then you turned the last page to see a picture of human astronauts. So I thought it'd be amusing to experiment with what one of the Turtles might think, catching a glimpse of a human for the first time and comparing it to what he views as "normal". Mikey is very young here...clearly Don hasn't figured out how to jury-rig a TV yet. ;)