Disclaimer: *see any of the last 25 chapters*
A calm breeze glided through the forest, playing with the leaves, enticing them into a gentle cascade of sound and calling peace to the surroundings. The wind twined around his ankles, caressed his face, eliciting a content sigh from him. He breathed in the forest's scents and an overall freshness seemed to flood his lungs. A small scattering of birds called to one another in the distance, adding to the warmth the waning sun's rays seemed to blanket the forest in. He was very tempted to find a comfy spot to sit and just soak everything in, but he was unfortunately occupied at the moment.
The turtle continued on his trek through the trees walking slowly and eyeing every possible hiding place; downed logs, natural ruts and trenches, bushes, and especially the encompassing forest ceiling of leaf and branch. He spotted a particularly interesting bit of flora stuck near the base of a tree trunk and stooped to examine it. He was looking at it for several minutes before he realized what he was doing and shook his head at himself, straightening to resume his search. If he took too long his brothers were bound to notice and he didn't want to endure their grumblings.
He'd been walking for several minutes when the sound of moving brush caught his attention. He whirled around just in time to see a squirrel leap out of a bush and clutch onto a nearby tree. The little critter scuttled about a foot up the tree before it froze and turned its fuzzy head in his direction. The two stared at one another for a minute before the turtle took a very slow and cautious step forward, wanting to see how close he could get before it bolted. One step, then another, the squirrel didn't move. Emboldened by the lack of response, he took another step a little too quickly and the little animal shot up and out of sight. The turtle sighed, but smiled at the spot where the squirrel had disappeared and returned to his task.
The wind floated through once more and played with his masked tails. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling. And that's when he heard a branch groan as its leaves shivered. He snapped his head up and over, studying the tree beside him long and hard before catching a glimpse of a brother's carapace. He smiled and quietly went over to the tree, unstrapping his bo to lightly tap his brother's shell.
"Found you Mikey." His brother whined and let himself fall backward while clinging to the branch with his legs. Michelangelo greeted his sibling upside down with a pout and his arms crossed over his plastron.
"How come you always find me first?"
Donatello rolled his eyes and smirked, "You weren't the first found this time Mikey."
The younger turtle's face lit up, "So I was found last?"
Don chuckled, "No Mikey, you weren't."
"Oh."
The purple banded turtle smiled as he watched his sibling dislodge himself from the tree and waited for him to straighten back up before speaking again.
"Come on," he said as he turned around, "you can help me find Leo."
Michelangelo grinned cheekily and quickly caught up to his brother, joining him on a quiet walk through the trees.
A/N: I'm not really sure what to make of this one. Again, I decided to try something a little different and I like it and all but at the same time I'm kinda agreeing with my sister when she says it doesn't feel quite…'done'. Problem is I don't really know what else to do with it. *shrug* Any suggestions? Thoughts?