Experiment Kitchi

Disclaimer: Nickelodeon owns Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Thank you.

-Prologue-

With mud stuck between my toes, I schlepped though the river, sinking deeper into the ground. Frigid water smacked my knees. My healing water pouch thumped into my thigh as I pulled my shorts up by the belt loops.

In front of me, a fox's tail vanished into the bushes like an extinguished flame.

Realizing that I hadn't even heard the critter, it occurred to me that the hunters could be hiding behind the leafy shadows.

Black eyes peering out of the mesh, tree limbs bowing under their weight as they lingered with their ropes and nets ready to seize me at any moment.

I stopped, judging whether the branches overhead could hide their mutated bodies. No, the green up there was a vivid-lime, almost yellow color under the noon sun. Hunters hated direct sunlight.

The whole sky seemed to dance. Light shone through, blotting out my vision with its golden radiance.

I had almost forgotten how powerful natural light was.

Looking down, I rubbed my eyes, blinking to get rid of the floating spots.

Pushing my dark hair out of my face, with my sight still distorted, I took a step forward and kicked a rock.

I stumbled in a cloud of muck, ultimately losing my balance and collapsing in on myself.

The current was stronger than I thought, it tossed me back and my head went under.

I flailed, grasping for anything solid in the grey and red world, gurgling water as it rushed into my mouth and penetrated my nose.

Frightened, I couldn't find my way up. My fingers scraped up sand and pebbles, feet kicking wildly as my clothes got caught on waterweeds.

Something solid cast a shadow over me, and I grabbed at it.

It dragged me out of the water, as if trying to haul a buoy straight up. I gulped for air, half-choking as someone swung me over his massive shoulder.

My mind fixated on the pouch as it nearly slipped over my head, and I struggled to grab the thin string and hold on.

It bounced harmlessly off my rescuer's leg, the black string coming undone in cords, knotted between my white knuckles.

Numb and heavy with shock, when I fell to the muddy riverbank, I laid there, splayed out like a dead body.

My mind was empty of thought.

A face talked above me. I focused on the branches interlacing into the sky, unable to hear anything beyond the echoes of sloshing water and rustling trees.

The body had large, callused hands. I could no longer see his face. He pulled me up to cough out the water still stuck in my lungs.

Getting clearer breathes of air, my vision bettered, as did the rest of my senses.

"Are you all right, kid?" His voice asked, as if I were hearing it from down in a hole.

Coughing again with a burning throat, I turned and blinked at the green and blue face.

I scrambled away with a burst of panicked energy, grabbing the closest weapon to me. It was a pathetic twig with a small brown leaf hanging on by a vein.

Still, I held it between us.

His eyes widened.

My hands began to sting and I dropped the twig with a scream, thorns stuck in my palms and fingers.

I cried, moving to the side when he reached out for me.

His body was tense, "I'm sorry!" He said, "I didn't mean to scare-" He jumped up as I darted into the bushes, "Wait!"

He caught me in the same moment. Dragging me back by the shirttail.

I tried to pull the white dripping fabric away from him and failed. I scrambled for my pouch, and with all the strength I had left in me, hurled it at him.

It bonked him in the stomach.

"Ow!" He let go of my shirt and took my pouch, holding it out of my reach above his head, water droplets rolling down his wrist.

He grabbed and squeezed my shoulder with the other hand before I could run again, "Look, I'm not here to hurt you."

I stared at him, sopping wet and panting, wondering why I wasn't dead.

He wasn't a hunter. Any hunter would have pummeled me without hesitation.

Where did he come from? Were there other creatures outside the prison? I hardly thought so.

He bent down to my eye-level. No one had ever done such a thing with me.

I turned away, never having looked anyone in the eye before. He tilted his head to see my face, "I'm Leo," he said gently, "I saw you fall and I wanted to help. What's your name?"

I wondered if he was a spirit of the wood. Their ways were different from mortals. Had the storytellers been wrong in their descriptions of the creatures?

I looked towards him, and then diverted my eyes to the pouch in his hand. He held it loosely. The string fell nearly invisible on the damp earth.

He followed my gaze, and brought it up between us, his fingers rubbed up against the embroidered name. Feeling the bumps of thread, he turned the pouch around, "Kitchi." He read, "Is that your name?"

Timidly, I nodded.

He sighed and let go of my shoulder, leaving a tender spot where his hand had been, "You want it back?" He asked, "You're not going to hit me with this again, are you?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"No…"

He relaxed, "Okay," Just as he opened his mouth to say more, his head snapped to the side.

There was swooshing movement trough trees and the birds were suddenly silent.

I scurried behind Leo, hoping his sheer size and strangeness of appearance would frighten the hunters away, whether he was a spirit or not.

Peering over his shell, I saw a face muscle flex as he smiled, "Donnie!"

Feeling me move, he reached behind and grabbed me by the forearm, and pulled me out to face the creature hidden in the vegetation.

"Leo?" Donnie's purple mask slid down, a clear sheen of sweat shone on his face, "Who's this?"

Leo stood, "Donnie, this is Kitchi." He said, "Kitchi, this is my brother, Donnie."

Donnie stared at me dubiously, readjusting his mask, "Where'd he come from?"

"I'm not sure," Leo shrugged, "I just saved him from drowning out there." He gestured widely to the ripples.

I felt a chill collect under my breastbone. There were two?

Staggering back, I grabbed the tree behind me, sputtering out fish water. I scrubbed at my nose, looking at my feet.

My foot was beginning to swell. I could plainly see it through the caked on mud.

At the sight, my sense of pain returned. My foot began to throb, and each thorn in the skin made itself known to me, sharp and biting.

I hissed, pushing off the bark to look at my red prickly hands.

Leo crouched down again. He grabbed my left wrist, examining the damage done to the hand, "This is my fault." He frowned, "I scared him and he grabbed a twig from one of the thorn bushes."

"Ouch!" Donnie said in sympathy, bending over to see, "I got stuck with one too when I was coming down here." He held up his arm for me to see.

Three or four nicks marked his skin, none of them bleeding.

Leo pulled out one of the thorns, and I yelped, pulling my hand away.

My pouch was behind Leo's heel, and I twisted to swoop down and grab it.

His brows shot up under his mask as I held it to my stomach protectively, away from him, "Kitchi, wait!"

"What're you doing?" Donnie questioned as I plopped down on the ground with my rescued treasure in my lap.

I sighed in relief from getting the weight off my foot, which felt as if it were radiating heat up my leg.

I fastened my teeth to my lower lip, doubting what I was about to do as I glanced at them. They didn't act like any creatures I had ever known or heard of… Not even the demons in stories.

I feared that they might not take kindly to my abilities. No other mutant ever had.

And as far as I knew, spirits weren't injured like mutants, and they might take offense. A curious part of me wondered how a spirit could be pricked with thorns, and I glanced up at Donnie.

I decided that it was best not to potentially anger them, and I flipped the cap up with a soft pop!

And let the water trickle down into my palm and slid it over the bridge of my foot, revealing that it was red and puffy.

They stared at my foot for a moment.

"I know we look scary, Kitchi." Leo said carefully, "But you have to trust us, we can help you." He squeezed my shoulder again, making it ache under the pressure, "Relax."

I tried flicking the mud off my fingers, covered in thorns. None of it came off. I flicked harder, and with no results. I growled, "I didn't think spirits helped anyone." I gave up and secured the pouch between my legs.

They're eyes glazed over for a half-second.

"What?" Leo stared at me, in my peripheral, I saw him bringing his brows together.

Donnie shook his head, and I instinctively hunched my shoulders in anticipated reprimand, "Er… Kitchi, we're not spirits… We're…"

"…Mutants." Leo finished.

"Mutants?" I repeated, blood coursed just below my skin, blooming in my face, "How'd you escape?"

Donnie frowned at me, "What do you mean 'escape?'"

I stood up, "Leave the prison!" I shouted.

Leo caught the pouch before any water spilled out.

I threw my arms, gesturing up river, "Only hunters are allowed out! You escaped!"

Their faces paled, and they straightened.

I folded my wounded foot around the other ankle, "You're not from the prison?" I asked.

Suddenly having cottonmouth, I took the pouch from Leo and brought it to my lips.

Ignoring nips of protesting thorns, I squeezed it with both hands so a steady stream dropped into my mouth.

I swished it around, savoring the thickness of it before swallowing.

Taking a deep breath, I prayed that the water could heal me from the inside out.

I gave the pouch back to Leo, giving my hands some relief. I concentrated on the willowy shadows dancing in the trees, unable to say more, my lips were numb.

"There's a prison on this island?" Leo turned to Donnie.

"I wasn't aware that there were any settlements here, there's nothing on the maps." Donnie said. Then a shadow crossed his face, and he looked to me with the thought, "Kitchi," he said quietly, "why did you think we had escaped from the prison?" Donnie asked.

"Everyone there is a mutant." I lowered my voice to match his, "There aren't any more outside the gates. We all live there, you can't be mutants." Perhaps they were the spawns of spirits and mutants.

"You're not a human?" They asked together.

I squinted at them, "Human?"

"Okay…" Leo held up his hands, as if to stop time, "Lets take a step back. There's a prison on this island, full of mutants. Right—and you're one of those mutants? You escaped?"

I nodded, "Yes."

"And what about the hunters?" Donnie added, "What do the hunters do?"

I shrugged, blinking, breathing deeply to keep my composure, "Well, now… They're hunting me."

"You're being hunted? How long have you been out here?" Leo twisted the fraying black cords between his fingers meditatively.

I sniffed, clenching and unclenching my fists to keep in touch with reality, "I left at dawn."

"We're not that far away from the prison, then." Leo said more to himself than anyone else. He touched his chin, and then continued, "Kitchi, you can come stay at our camp tonight. We'll protect you from the hunters," he touched one of his swords, "if you tell us more about the prison."

I agreed.

"Here," Donnie said, giving me a kind smile, "Let me try to get those thorns out, first."

A/N: Thank you for reading.