Disclaimer…I do not own the turtles…folklore…or anything else….

It would be easy to suggest that this was all just a bad dream, but Mikey knew otherwise. This was real. Too real. As he raced through the corridors, half sliding on the dusty marble floors, death past through his mind often. In the distant, he heard the maniacal laughter, ringing out behind him. He gave a sharp whimper, but kept going. He was running for his life. His muscles screamed with each step he took, but panic forced his body forward.

He darted around the corner, only to slide to a sudden stop. They stood there, waiting for him. He could see their eyes, glowing red in the shadows.

Mikey backed away, breathing hard. He looked around frantically, trying to find a way out. He felt a familiar chill on his shell….It was too late!

This was it. He was doomed….

How did it end up to this?

* 48 hours earlier*….

"Look, Raph! If you got a problem, then spit it out!" Leonardo was yelling. Mikey groaned and covered his ears….they had been doing this for hours! Mikey couldn't even remember what they were fighting about any more.

"What ya think I'm doing?" demanded Raph, getting right up into Leo's face. Their beaks almost touched. They both stared at each other with defiant eyes.

"I am sick of ya telling me what ta do!" Raph snarled. "I am going out and you can't stop me!"

Oh yeah. That was it. Now I remember. Mikey thought to himself. Raph wanted to go to Casey's and Leo had told him no. It didn't take much, did it?

"Look, Splinter said…"Leonardo began sharply. But Raph threw his hands up. "It's just a hockey game! I don't care what you or what Splinter says about it. It aint gonna kill ya to loosen up!"

"He put me in charge! He said no one was to go out! I am so sorry that you think yourself above that, Raphael!" Leonardo retorted, evenly.

Well, it was time for me to intervene. Mikey figured, getting up from the couch. Any second and the whole world were going to witness a bloody fight.

"Dudes! Dudes! Just chill out! Casey, could come here and watched the game." Mikey shot them a bright, 100 watt smile. Both his siblings turned to look at him, considering, then….

"Get outta my way, Leo!"

"Fat chance, Raph!"

Mikey sighed. "They are just into fighting, Mikey." Don called from his lab. "But, nice try."

Mikey headed over to the turtle in purple. "I can't take this much longer, Don. They are giving me a stroke! All they do is fight! They waste soooooo much time! I mean, they could have played a video game, made a pizza, and read about five comic books in this amount of time!"

Don gave the younger turtle a perplexed look. "And you talk about them wasting time?"

"Yeah, I know." Mikey said, not really listening to Don, just watching Raph and Leo got at it. Don rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Mikey glanced back at his genius brother. "Whatcha doing?"

Don's reaction was instant, he covered whatever he was working on, shielding it with his body from his brother. "Nothing." He said, far too quickly. Mikey frowned at him.

"Dude, do you have to do that? I only broke that one…thingamajing…"

"You broke a high frequency detonator! It took me weeks to fix up my lab and Splinter grounded me on top of it!" Don replied, eyeing Mikey warily.

Mikey tried to peer under his arm to get a good look at what he was building. "Ya don't say? Bummer."

It was a pretty average day and that is when it was turned upside down. There was a blinding flash and suddenly Mikey was lying on a bottom of a pile. "Ow! Get off!" He whined to his brothers, who were flung across his back.

"What the shell just happened?" Leonardo asked, pulling Don to his feet. They appeared to be in some sort of valley. Mountains loomed above. It was definitely not New York!

"No idea…It wasn't Renet, was it? It felt like the Time scepter." Don saying, regarding the trees all around him.

"Ya. But I don't see the twit." Raph snapped, referring to Renet.

"Leo…" Mikey said, pointing, eyes wide. He was staring at something up above. The others followed his gaze. It was a castle.

"FUCK!" Raph roared, throwing his hands up. "We in the freakin medieval age again!"

"Screaming is not going to help us." Leo told him, studying the castle.

"Man, it is pretty cool." Whistled Mikey. "In a dark, spooky kind of way." Mikey began heading over, but Leo caught his elbow. "So you're going towards the creepy castle?"

"Well, we actually should, Leo. We need to figure out where we are and why we are here." Don put in.

"What? Ya scared, Leo?" Raph snickered.

Leo frowned at him. "I just got a bad feeling about this place…."

Mikey grinned at Leo. "It's okay. I'll hold your hand."

The blue wearing turtle sighed, realizing that his family was not going to take him seriously. Typical.

"Alright, but everyone remain alert."

"Yeah, yeah. We know the drill, Leo. Sheesh." Raph remark, brushing past him to take the lead.

"Mikey. You don't have to hold my hand…" Leo began, but the younger turtle, just winked at him, pulling the leader along. Leo heaved another sigh, but let Mikey drag him through the trees.

If only they had listen to Leo….