Flights Of Fancy
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent transformed shadow warrior chelonians.
Chapter One – Better Than Ninja.
Raph groaned as he sat up very slowly spitting some pine needles from out of his mouth he glanced cautiously around and saw that he was in the midst of some dark forest large trees pressed close together blocking out the sky above. There were some familiar looking trees such as pine, hemlock, spruce and others that looked very recognizable and then there were also the trees that he had never seen before and there was a rather wide assortment of those too.
He stood up and looked around not seeing any sign of his brothers " Leo, Mike, Donny!" he called out. " I knew this trip was a bad idea. Any thing Renet sends ought to be enough of a warning for us to keep our mitts to ourselves" Raph grumped to himself as he called and searched frantically for his missing brothers but to no avail.
How could he possibly get home now?
He let loose a long string of curse words and grumbling under his breath deciding that his best option was to find his brothers, especially Donatello and use the cube to get back home and fast!
His brothers might, hopefully, be somewhere in the same general area just out of range of his yells and vision.
Raph climbed to the top of a pine tree to get an idea of what lay around and maybe a possibility of what direction he ought to head in. The forest stretched in every direction for some miles but Raph was pretty sure that he saw a large body of water like an ocean or sea off to the east, there were mountains to the north and what looked like a clearing some days travel to the south.
The clearing looked to be the closest of those points so Raph determined to head southward and leave a trail that ought to be fairly easy for his brothers to follow it if they came this way looking for him.
He made his way back down and out of the tree and headed on his way a sai in his right hand to mark tree trunks every few feet as a signal of his being here and the way he was heading. He noted as he walked that the forest was strangely quiet, there was not a single bird calling and he thought that was rather odd because in a forest of this size he would be expecting to hear some noise of animals, even if it was only birds singing or smaller creatures moving around in the undergrowth, yet his keen ninja instincts detected nothing.
Raph walked on making a note of the area he was in and possible landmarks just in case, his eyes noting the landscape as he walked silently on. He felt comfortable and more at ease when he saw plants and trees that were familiar to him but there were just as many strange plants that made him uncomfortable.
He had never seen such a wide variety of plants before and some of the truly bizarre ones made him wonder if they were even on a prehistoric earth.
There was a small tree that had large spikes instead of branches and small pink round leaves that trembled and shook in spite of the fact there was no wind. A group of gnarled twisted and bent trees that looked as if they grew around tortured souls with long dangling vines instead of branches that for some reason gave Raph the shudders just looking at the twisted trees. Then there was the tree that had stood in the center of a small island a puddle of water all around it; it had plenty of golden yellowish leaves that continually dripped water down each leaf into the puddle below.
There were many more such plants all equally strange in some way and Raph took great pains to avoid them as, he wasn't to sure in his own mind how safe these trees, and bushes were. He often had to make large detours to get around some of these specimens of plant life but he preferred to do that to perhaps ending up sick or dead from getting near a highly toxic plant. It wasn't worth risking his life over.
The eerie silence of the forest continued and Raph was starting to feel more then a little thirsty with his walking and fighting his way through the bush but he hadn't found any thing that might lead him to a stream or creek so he used his ninja training to push such things aside as he continued to walk on.
Raph felt a strange prickling near the back of his neck, his senses and every instinct was running on high alert and he was quite sure that some one or something was following him. There was no doubt about it he was being watched but he wasn't sure by who.
He stopped and scanned the woods hoping to catch a glimpse of the person that followed him but he saw and heard nothing.
" This place is starting to give me the creeps," he muttered to himself before he turned to continue his walk.
This time he stayed aware his eyes scanning the woods all around him yet still he didn't see any thing to be worried about. Heck he hadn't seen so much as a bug or a snail for that matter and that seemed to put him all the more on edge.
His ninja instincts were telling him that he was in deed being followed and Raph wasn't about to ignore those warning bells that were ringing loud and clear for him. Try as he might though to catch sight of his mysterious tracker, or trackers, as the case may be, he hadn't been able to see a thing.
This only added to the strange feelings that seemed to fill the woods, and Raph both with an unwelcoming, uneasiness. Raph sincerely wished that he were somewhere else at the moment anywhere else would be just fine, as long as it wasn't in these creepy foreboding gloomy woods.
" I just want to get the hell out of here" Raph whispered to himself.
Still with every step he took he was very aware that something was hunting him and he didn't care for the knowledge of continuing to walk on while he knew he was being stalked and possible attacked at any given moment.
Nor could he run for that could very well invite an attack from whatever concealed itself in the woods waiting and watching him.
This was wearing on Raph's nerves and his patience as well. He took a couple of steps then paused glancing all around, looking over his shoulder still he saw and heard absolutely nothing, and yet the whole experience was keeping Raph very much on edge.
After about the millionth time of checking his surroundings and finding zip Raph yelled into the woods " If you are playing some kind of game you'll live to regret it, I'm not going to be your dinner or play thing! Come on step out right now and show yourself!" he yelled in fury.
No one answered his challenge and his angry yell was swallowed up by the darkness of the encroaching bush. No one came forth to put his mind at ease, or even to laugh at him.
" Mike if that is you so help me" Raph growled realizing it could very well be his fun loving brother playing a practical joke on him. If Raph was to find out that was the case then Mike was going pay for this joke dearly.
" I hate this place," Raph muttered grimly.
He knew full well that the woods and their eerie silence was starting to get to him and at the moment he would have preferred a straight fight over this unnerving feeling of being hunted by some unknown being or beings, as it might possibly be.
Raph stood his eyes scanning the darkness around the trees, his every sense running high and his heart starting to hammer under his plastron as he stood his ground with baited breath waiting and hoping for something to happen if only to ease the tension building up in his body.
If Mike were here he'd be having a field day over this and would never let Raph live it down giving Raph a bad time about his tough brother's sudden lack of nerves.
" Just one word, one snicker Mikey and you are so dead!" Raph hissed. " This is really stupid here I am a trained ninja and I'm jumping at shadows," he muttered ruefully to himself. He gave a shake of his head before turning and walking off into the woods.
Some where off in the distance he heard a low long mournful howl, the first noise to break the stillness of the woods other then his own voice did a great deal to ease Raph's anxieties.
After all that howl meant that some animals obviously did live in these woods, most of them just might be in hiding at this point, and the howl was far enough off that he knew the owner of it didn't pose a threat to him.
He relaxed a bit as he began to think of many reasons why he hadn't heard or seen any thing up to this point and all of these things helped reassure him, however they didn't ease that lingering haunting feeling of being watched and followed.
Raph whipped around at one point only to see a dark large shape disappearing into the shadows around the trees.
It wasn't human though it had been fairly large, it had a bushy tail and that was about all that Raph had been able to see of the beast before it seemed to vanish right before his eyes into the surrounding woods.
One animal, maybe it was just passing by, or was it the creature that had been hunting him? If it was, could the animal be alone or traveling with others of its kind?
The way it had moved so silently and disappeared so quickly caused Raph to shudder involuntarily.
" Things are worse then a bloody ninja" Raph remarked softly to himself as he went over to the spot he had last seen the beast.
The comparison did little to help him relax in fact it had quite the opposite effect on him. As he scanned the ground he found one paw print alone and he sucked in a sharp breath as he realized that paw print was as large as his hand.
' That thing is huge!'
Raph gulped nervously suddenly wishing he could trade in his trusty sais for something a little more lethal like a rifle perhaps.
He moved on even more jumpy then before and felling his anxiety rise with every step that he took, he wanted very much to be out of this forest before nightfall for then the dark woods would grow be even more so, and the thought was not comforting in any way shape or form.
To think that he was a ninja and was becoming frightened of the shadows that were closing in all around him.
He heard a yelp off to his left and turned in time to see a large shaggy animal get up off the ground and shake itself off, it turned a large broad head to look over it's shoulder, and it was then Raph noticed the sharp small curved horn on the forehead of the beast, and the gleaming white teeth displayed past its wrinkled black lips.
It looked almost like a wolf, except for that horn of course, and it was also larger then what Raph expected any wolf to look like. It gave a deep rumbling growl its lip curling to further reveal the sharp teeth. Before it turned and bounded easily, effortlessly and silently into the woods.
" What the hell kinda dog is that?" Raph asked aloud.
Suddenly from almost all points around him he heard an angry savage roar, and deep threatning growls from the shadows stepped a whole pack of these creatures.
One was a battle scarred veteran, with half an ear missing, teeth showing slightly yellowed, it's amber eyes sunken into its broad head, scars on its muzzle and legs, it's thick grey coat bristling.
The black one was at its side a splash of white on its chest, two white ones one smaller more feminine looking and older, two young greys and the last member of the pack was a reddish coloured creature with front legs turned slightly inwards towards its chest.
All of them stood in a circle around Raph sharp pointed ears laid back, hackles raised, hair bristling, angry snarls escaping from sharp pointed muzzles that showed gleaming pointed teeth.
Raph knew without a doubt that there was no way he could fight and kill all of them. He had a feeling these creatures would literally rip him to pieces before he got the chance.
This then is what had been silently stalking him through these woods and now that the large pack of wolf/dog creatures had surrounded him they seemed quite content to sit and snarl at him waiting for him to make his next move.
" Come on then" Raph egged them on " I'll take the whole lot of ya on!" Raph declared he knew he was going to die but he would go down fighting and he planned on taking a few of these creatures with him.
The black creature gave a short sharp almost barking laugh and growled low as if amused that its prey was willing to fight and challenge them in its daring way.
Raph took a deep quick breath he knew he would have to come up with something fast if he was going to survive this battle.
TBC