So...Now that most of Arctica's character development is done, there isn't much left than simply get to the destination, I was a little stuck for this chapter until I had the idea for a foreshadowing dream sequence! If you've read the other stories in the Neozoic Tales you'll know this means because of Don's relationship with Belladonna, but this happens several years before he meets her so while at this point the Turtles know they can have dreams of the future, this dream refrlecting some of the wackiness of the Humanimal world will not come off that way to Don, seem more like a 'What did I eat to cause that dream?' Also since the last few chapters were mostly about Arctica with Don occasionally chiming in, this returns on this story's original intent of being mostly from Don's perspective.
As Don and Arctica slept in the branches of another oak tree, Don...Had a dream unlike any he had ever had before...Don often claimed he made lists in his dreams to emphisize he never turned off the genius even in his sleep, but this dream...Felt like a complition of a bunch of cartoons, the kind of dream Mikey would have, if it wasn't also as disturbing as it was bizarre!
Don first found himself in a dark place, and that mangy Rabbit Karl appeared before him, this time brandishing a pitchfork like those classic dipictions of Devils!
"Hee hee hee!" The Mutant Rabbit giggled "You think you're real clever don't ya? You got her, you got a real cute dolly of a girl don't ya?"
'Cute dolly of a girl?' was he referring to Arctica?
"Hee heee hee!" Karl giggled "But you don't know what you're in for!" Karl sneered "Igor went to find the dragon egg! If you don't hurry he's gonna eat it!"
Not knowing why he should care about a Dragon egg (Maybe other than the fact it was an innocent life, and a Dragon should not be eaten by the likes of Igor) Don found himself compelled to find the egg before Igor did...He clamored out of the dark pit...And ran as fast as he could his legs were like a blur he was running more like a cartoon character in this dream...He found himself running through a cozy little suburb where the people living in the houses, tending their gardens and just going about their lives were animal people like himself...He barely stopped to notice them, he just felt an insane urge to get to the egg before Igor did but he had no idea where that egg could be...
Then the Americana Suburb transitioned to a fairy tale castle, ivy and roses were growing along the white castle walls, the windows were made of stained glass...Don leapt over the castle's garden wall and charged through a door, he found himself in the kitchen where Igor had the egg in his grasp about to take a bite...Don charged foreward...And then explosion like fireworks! That was when he woke up with a start!
"Shell!" Don exclaimed "What the shell was that?!" He mopped the sweat from his brow, never in his life could he remember having a dream like that!
"That felt like...The kind of dream I would have after watching a marthon of Disney movies..." He wiped his now slimy hands on his knees... "Dragon..." He murmured to himself "Where the shell did the dragon come from?" He knew Dragons were an important sympol in Japanese culture...But he had no reason to think about Dragons recently...Last he checked his traveling companion was an Artic Wolf...Maybe her monsterous form she just been freed from might be thought of as a ...Dragon Wolf? But really that form was better thought of as a 'Werewolf' as opposed to her normal form which while Anthropomorpic really just made one think of a Normal Wolf acting like a person rather than a supernatual monster... He turned and looked at his companion she was still sleeping on her branch, Don smiled she really was a beauty and unfortunatly that blessing of gentics seemed to very much go to her head when her life was good, but last night she was finally beginning to see the error of her ways and hopefully she would return to her home dimension a much better person.
"Hey..." Don said quietly "It's morning."
Artica yawned "Could we stay a few more minutes?"
"Not much of a morning person are you?" Don said "Unfortunatly I feel we have to get moving..."
He felt at the bandage on his neck, he thought about removing it, but the they were still traveling through this overgrown forest and even this flimiest of protection for his stitches was still better than nothing
He just knew somehow his Brothers and Splinter were hot on his trail, and he wanted to get Arctica to her destination before he had to face them,
"Listen I have an idea about how we can get to where we want to go faster..." He said "...We'll jump onto a passing Semi-Truck."
"Ooh..." Arctica winced "...Isn't...That kind of dangerous."
"It is," Don said "If you're not a trained Ninja..." Then he realized before Arctica said
"Which I'm not. Seriously, what if it goes through a tunnel?"
"We'll get off before that happens." Don said as he began to climb down the tree "Really we just want to get a little closer to the Appalachian Mountains if we keep traveling by foot it will take of six more days..."
That Dream Sequence may have seemed totally Looney Tunes but it actually revealed quite a bit about the Humanimal Universe, the Suburban Neighborhood natually reprisented Mizzer, while the Fairy Tale Castle reprisented the Wrangler worlds where society has returned to Feudalism