I do not own the TMNT.
I love writing this story! Tell me what you think!
Green-Writer
Decisions
Chapter 5
Silence reined for about five minutes before I caught the two whispering "Not" and "Too" back and forth at one another. Groaning, I dropped my head into my hands. I knew the two were just venting frustration in a sibling fight, but they were driving me crazy. I guess this was better than panicking over what was happening to Mikey at the moment or raging, expending useless energy. Rage, panic and guilt were emotions not needed at this time.
"Stay safe," I prayed to my little brother, "We're coming. Hold tight. Ouch! Damn pothole!"
Dammit! The weather had not held up for us at all. Due to a severe thunderstorms the quickest and most direct roads to reach Hyogo had been flooded out. Our driver had to turn around and go to Hyogo in a more round about way. Donnie had the feeling that Katsuro may have had something to do about conjuring up these storms. By the time the storms had ended and we had reached the drop off point to get to Katsuro's fort, it had taken a grand total of seven days to reach Hyogo. This left us with a little more than six days to get to Mikey.
We thanked our ride and set out to hike the remaining distance to Katsuro's fort. Donnie assured us that Master Makota said that we would find no one in the forests. The closest civilian would be in a small village that was located around the ancient fort. Once we were hidden from view from the road, we quickly took off our "monk" disguises. We would move faster this way and Raph crowed at being able to get rid of his "itchy" kimono.
We hiked as long as there was light enough to see. The travel was not easy. We were traveling pretty much uphill all the time. Each of us was in shape, but was hard pressed to keep up a brisk pace. Seeing my brothers beginning to lag more and more behind, I called for a small break on the second day of our journey into the woods.
"What are we stoppin' for?" Raph demanded, "We don't have that much time left!"
"I know," I said, "But we are not going to help Mikey if we collapse from exhaustion. Let's take a break."
"Well I'm not tired," Raph stated as he huffed and puffed.
"Well I am," Donnie said dropping down on a log, "Do you guys feel that there is something wrong about these woods?"
"What do you mean?" I asked uneasily for I had been feeling suspicious as well.
"This forest is way too quiet," Donnie said softly glancing around nervously.
Donnie was right. Something had been nagging at me on our hike and that was it. This forest was quiet to the point of being silent. There weren't any birds that flew through the trees or squirrels that chattered in the branches. Our soft footfalls seem to thunder in this unnaturally quite place. This wasn't right.
"Let's go," I said, "Stay alert and keep up."
The three of us moved into a position so that we could more easily defend one another if we were attacked. I felt uneasy as if eyes were watching us all the time. We continued until we could no longer see and then settled for the night.
"Something isn't right," I said to my brothers who were sitting in front of our camp fire, "I don't like this. I think Katsuro's toying with us."
"I do too. I feel as if we are being watched," Donnie said nervously, "Something is about to happen. I know it."
"So let it happen," Raph growled, "I'm tired of waiting."
But wait we did. Everything remained peaceful and we prepared our dinner with no disturbances. My brothers rested first as I began the first watch. I kept my senses open to detect anything, but nothing seemed out of place. I was replaced by Raph and was able to get a few hours sleep before a nightmare about Katsuro and Mikey robbed me of all sleepiness. By then Donnie was on watch. I let him go back to sleep, assuring him that I had slept enough for the night. Surprisingly, I felt myself getting sleepy about an hour before sun-up. Had I exhausted myself that much today? No I hadn't!
"Ambush!" I screamed as I snapped to alertness and witnessed dark figures pouring from the shadows.
Shadow warriors! My brothers and I leapt with our weapons drawn. We were eager for this battle. Belatedly, I remembered Katsuro boasting about summoning his wards, as I dispatched adversary after adversary. It seemed to be never ending, but our rage became our advantage. This wasn't Katsuro, but the shadow warriors were close enough targets to take out some of our aggressions and it felt good.
"Come on you in' cowards!" Raph taunted as he spun his deadly sais and advanced on another shadow warrior, "Let's party!"
"This is for Mikey!" Donnie screamed clubbing an adversary over the head with his bo before moving on, "And this is for upsetting Splinter! And this is for making us ride in that damn bus and then that damn truck!"
"Go Donnie!" Raph cheered taking down another shadow warrior.
"Stay focused!" I ordered as I rounded on another adversary.
Time must have gotten away from us. To our surprise and disappointment, the remaining shadow warriors disappeared into dust at the rising of the sun. We had survived another battle. Filled with battle adrenaline, I screamed our victory to the woods around me, which was echoed by Donnie and Raph.
"We are coming Katsuro!" I shouted to the sky, "And we will take you down!"
To be continued.