Her eyes widen as she looked up into the emerald green eyes that seemed to almost have slight glow to them and tensed up. She felt her face flush in embarrassment as she adverted her eyes. 'Has he been carrying me around this whole time?' She felt him loosen his grip on her as he shifted. 'This must be as awkward for him as it is for me.' She glanced down from where they were hidden at the woodland floor. She hear the sound in the distance of dogs barking but it sounded like they were far enough away that they would not hear them if they spoke quietly or if she moved a little bit if no branches were broken. She glanced up at him and gently pushed herself back from him and scooted onto the branch clearing her throat softly.
"I… um…" She said quietly not knowing what to say. He held up his hand and she bit her lower lip slightly.
"Look you don't got to say anything I am just doing what I was raised to do." He said before crossing is arms. She felt a droplet of water land on her arm and looked up. A sound of thunder in the distance filled the air soon leading way to more rain falling down.
"Huh. Perfect timing." She heard him mumble as the branch they were on shifted. "Come on. There should be a way to get to freedom to the east." She watched as he jumped from the branch they were on to another tree. 'Well…. I got nothing to loose..' She thought as she followed him silently. 'I just hope it is not a trap ahead of us.'
Hours pass by as they moved across the forest branch by branch. Eventually they came across a area where the trees did not have enough branched strong enough to hold their weight. He sighed frowning before glancing back at the girl. 'I guess we are on the ground from here.' He thought as he jumped down to the ground.
"Well you coming? I don't want to stay here longer than I have to." He stated bluntly as he looked up at her. She rolled her eyes slightly coming down out of the tree. She glanced around and smiled slightly.
"I don't really want to stay here either… but we should really eat something so we are not running on steam. Looks like there are some raspberry brambles here with some fruit." She says pointing over to a bush. He opened his mouth to shut down the idea but his stomach growled loudly clearly betraying that he was hungry. He frowned sighing grumbling inwardly.
"…. I guess stopping to eat wouldn't hurt.." He mumbled going over to the bush with her. He saw the plump red berries on the plant, unfortunately the plant was covered in huge thorns and his hands were too big to fit through the gaps. He narrowed his eyes annoyed a little bit glancing at her. She just smiled and giggled softly.
"It's alright I got it." She says before glancing around and picking a large looking leaf kneeling on the ground setting the leaf in her lap. Arching a hairless brow he watched her with crossed arms as she reached into the tangled thorny brambles, picking the fruit and setting it in the leaf. After having filled the leaf she was filling she picked it up and held it out towards him with a soft grin. Awkwardly he took it nodding a thanks taking a couple berries and eating them. He had to admit they tasted pretty good.
"So um… My name is Shen…" She says as she was picking berries for herself. He looked at her silently debating wither or not to tell her his name. He shrugged slightly figuring that telling her his name would not hurt.
"Raphael… but I prefer Raph." He says half-heartedly as he ate the berries. "…. So if you don't mind me asking how did you get captured?" He asked glancing at her. He watched her tense up and her jaw clinch a little bit. "I was at the place I was staying at… and they busted down the walls flooding the room surrounding me. I knock several of them out but there was far to many for one person to manage. Since I am not a female Rambo or the Hulk." She says with a shrug finishing filling her leaf and started to munch on her berries.
He could not help a chuckle. "Wow… would not have pegged you as the type to like those type of characters." He says feeling a smirk form on his face as he looked down at her. She returned the smirk. "You would be surprised what type of things I like. I was a tomboy before getting mutated though… now I guess I am a mix of tomboy and girlish… depends on what the stuff is." She shrugged standing up.
"We better keep moving. We can eat these while on the go, and I would rather not be captured by those creeps again." She tells him heading to the direction the green eyed turtle was leading. "What makes you so sure that is the way to go?" He asked walking after her picking up pace so he was beside her. She glanced at him smirking coyly.
"Well it was the direction you were heading. I figured you either overheard one of the guards trying to find us talking about a way that would lead to salvation or you beat the tar out of a few before finding out the direction to go. With all those muscles you must have been train as some sort of fighter. And from the accent you are from New York like me." She looked at him as he stared at her with slight surprises of her somewhat accurate guess work. "Though… not sure what type of fighting style you have learned. Have to watch you in action before I can make that guess. Unless you want to tell me?" She say finishing with a question.
"… Not sure I should tell you as of yet…. You will see when I get to my hide out… before heading to home…" He says glancing away from her reprocessing his thoughts. 'She is smart… little to smart maybe for her own good.' He looked at her. "Just wondering but how did you manage to guess most of that correctly?" He says finding himself becoming more curious than weary of her than he was.
She laughed slightly looking at him with amusement in her big vibrant blue eyes. "Well when we live in one of the most violent cities on earth you have to either be born with abnormal observance abilities or adapt so you don't die… But I was very artistic since I was little so I had learned to pick up on things since I wanted to be an artist when I got older. I think it is obvious that plans had changed from wanting to be an artist to wanting to make sure people did not see me. There are perks to being a mutant but there are also draw backs unless you have the ability to shape shift. Which I unfortunately was not graced with." She tells him before plopping the last of her berries in her mouth chewing them. She stretches a bit. "Ugh. One thing I do miss though is running water. I can't wait for a shower to wash off the feeling that a bunch of creeps were prodding and poking me with grimy hands."
He could not help but laugh to that finishing what was left of his berries. "I hear ya on that one. If I ever see this place and that whack job again I will lose it." He stated with a shake of his head. "You have any family?" He heard her ask and he tensed up a bit looking at her. "Um… yeah… Rather not talk about them yet… No offence but I have not decided yet if it is a good idea for you to meet them yet. I'll tell you about them when I do alright?" The green eyed terrapin tells her looking forward jaw clinched slightly. He felt her eyes on him for a few moments before she sighed.
"You don't give your trust out freely. I can respect that. I guess I would not tell someone I barely knew anything about those I care about either till I know for sure they would not hurt them." He heard her say in a soft tone causing him to glance over at her. She was playing with her hair biting her lower lip a bit while looking down at the ground. The turtle teen looked forward and let out a grumbly sigh not knowing what he should do. He knew he was not good with emotions or talking. "Listen… I'm.. not that good with talking to people I have just met… It isn't you it's just how I am. Much rather have action than talk or plan things. But if you want to talk we could talk about other things that are not to personal okay?" He says cautiously rubbing the back of his neck.
She looked up at him and he saw her smile warmly at him. Her smile was contagious making him smile awkwardly and shift a little bit. He saw her tense up and look behind them. Following her gaze to the tree line he wondered why she got tense all the sudden. "Raph… we need to run.." He heard her say to him as the sound of dogs came out in the distance. 'Ah sewer apples.' He thought as he bolted to the tree line with her right on his heels.
"Faster Shen! Run faster!" He called out in hushed urgency as he picked up speed. He heard her yelp slightly and heard a crack sound like a bone popping. He looked back and saw her foot was snared in a trap. He felt himself start to panic a little bit as he examined her foot. 'Okay. Okay it is not that bad. No bleeding or broken bones that I can see. Her foot was just popped out of its socket nothing I can't fix. Shell I wish Donnie was here!' He thought trying to remain calm as he removed the trap from her ankle. He hears her hiss and whine a little obviously in pain.
" Go on.. I will only slow you down.." She said trying to push him away. His eyes narrow at her. "Fat chance I am not leaving you here to get captured again!" He said sounding more irritated than intended. He looked down at her ankle and grabbed her foot popping back into place not giving her a chance to argue hearing her yelp again. He quickly picked her up and began running again at full speed out of the grassy glade sprinting through the forest.
"Raph. You hear that?" He barely heard her say. He halted panting closing his eyes stretching out his senses. He heard the sound of the dogs giving chase followed by the men tracking them, the sound of wild life being disturbed by their rush to escape, and water. "The river… we're close… I am going to need you to hold onto me from behind." He says opening his eyes, the emerald green pools filled with determination to reach that river. Swinging her around him so she was piggy backing he ran towards the sound of the water.
'Come on, come on. Got to get to the river. I got to get home to Sensei and my brothers.' He thought over and over until he saw the river flow in the didstance. Picking up more speed her kept into the air.
"Hold your breath and don't let go!" He stated quickly as he could before taking a gulp of air as they both submerged under the water's surface escaping their pursuers in the cold rushing water.
