For the prompt: "in the jungle". The pounding sun line is courtesy of Senorita Nervegas. If you haven't done so, please check out her story "Leo's Journal". More of his central american stories await the eager reader~ (They don't have anything to do with mine but I thought I should give a nice plug.)

Added in a little more dialogue to flesh the story out a bit. Pardon me if my fingers go faster than my brain sometimes :p


In the heart of this vicious maze, a solitary warrior slashes his way through dirt and heavy curtains of leaves. Blood drums in his ears, and his blurry and fading sight weaves a terrible road. The night is unforgiving; the rain will come soon. The mud will feed through this maze, like a giant alien worm hell bent on eating an adrenaline-pumping mutated turtle. Oh, the worm feasts on dismay! Delicious and succulent enough for its dessert and the consumed turtle returns to the very ground, the place he thought would help save him. Back to the womb, back to the abyss.

I'm a ninja! I can hide, even in a stupid forest!

Grass ripples and something slithers at his far right. No time to think. Go! Go!

Feet plants on the ground and gallops hard through the environment's distortion. Distress triggers a quiet yet rising anger. Everything is so fast; the world is like a shattered egg. Yolk oozing out of its pores and molding into his terror. The player reaches his end of the game, and there's no more running and hiding like a wuss.

If I'm going to be eaten, it'll have to fight for its dinner!

And then it happens like a sonic boom. That troublesome brother's laugh can be heard for miles, despite the brush's thickness. "My, my, Raphael!" the voice reveals itself as a grin in the dark and proceeds in the foreign land's tongue.

Raphael the Brave lost his jaw somewhere between the mention of his name and 'losing', but he knows that irritating voice anywhere. "Speaking-sy English, Paco! What the hell were you doing to me? I was asleep and then I felt something crawlin'!"

Cool as a raindrop, Leonardo emerges from the darkness, still sporting a devilish grin, "Having a little fun. Things were getting boring, and I went bug hunting for you."

"I didn't want to come here!" tramping his foot, Raphael howls to an audience, "Back to your old stomping grounds in Central fucking America with bugs big enough to screw me!"

"Good way to scare them off, I imagine."

"You SHUT UP!" Birds fly out of a tree at the screech. "African honey bees! Bot flies! I can't see that shit in the dark and my mind plays tricks on me-"

"It's daytime! You ran for a good mile and a half down to the juicy parts of the jungle," Leonardo's grin stretches as far as it can on his smarmy face, "...where the real threat lives in the never ending dark."

Right on cue, a crash in the distance freezes an owl-eyed Raphael's bravery and he stampedes back up his trail of fears. "I should've known you were lying when we took the wrong turn at El Paso! I won't take any more shots of tequila from YOU!" Twigs snap in the distance. "A brotherly vacation, my ass!"

The pounding noonday sun blisters angst on his bald head. The nightmare is so close to ending. Just a duffel bag and a hitch-hike away from tasting freedom. He'll gladly take on Manhattan's critters before the big ugly Tarzan territory.

Leonardo has always been a thoughtful brother, remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and special events. Raphael will have a new pet for his upcoming birthday, courtesy of Central America.