A Million Miles Apart

A/N: Yay, I got a chapter done before this month was over! I was planning on having this chapter and next chapter be one chapter, but found it was getting too crowded with all the details and plot points I wanted to showcase. Especially with the one in this chapter, combined with everything else I wanted to squeeze in, something just started to look insignificant. As if they weren't as important as I wanted them to be. So I split the two up and added more detail to the things I wanted to showcase in this chapter.

Anyway, I hope you'll like this chapter and please review, favorite and follow!

Chapter 36, Tea with Chief Patowan

Samu and Mew took us to one of the huge trees and pointed up to the one of huts, about two hundred feet above the ground, and told us that we could stay up there for the night. Looking up the impressive tree, I couldn't help but shudder. Now, don't get me wrong- I have no problem with heights in any way. My brothers and I used to play and run on pipelines above flushing water in the sewers, and Splinter used them a lot of times to train our balance when we were kids. I had no real problem with heights, which helped the fact that we always ran and jumped across tall buildings back home. But that was nothing compared to these trees. The tallest building I could remember us entering was TCRI, and that was only about a hundred feet above the ground, at the very most. This was way more than that. And don't tell me you wouldn't feel the same if you realized you had to climb a tree that was four hundred feet tall with only a rope ladder or planks glued to the trunk of the tree. And let me just remind you that two hundred feet was only where the lowest branches were. The trees themselves were way taller than that.

Jhanna nudged my arm and looked at me with that stupid smug smirk she liked to use a lot. "What's the matter, tough guy? Scared of heights?" I glared at her and folded my arms over my plastron.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell you're not the slightest bit apprehensive about climbing that!" I gestured at the tree and the ladder, but Jhanna just rolled her eyes at me and her smirk got a little bigger.

"I'm not scared of anything. I practically grew up with thieves, criminals and big, strong aliens teaching me the ways of life. Nothing scares me anymore." She stepped forward and placed her foot on the ladder, ready to climb up. But she hesitated for a second, and I could see her gulp and eye the trunk, the tree and the long way up to the branch uneasily. Then she took a deep breath and started to climb. I looked at the others, who had their eyes glued to her as she climbed higher and higher, as quick and flexible as a monkey. I didn't want to be seen as worse than Jhanna, so I walked up to the ladder to follow.

While I managed to start climbing just fine, I couldn't shake the fear and worry twisting itself around in my stomach. And as I got higher and higher, it only got worse and worse, to a point where I wanted to throw up.

'If I fall from here, I'll get splattered all over the forest.' I thought to myself, but then another voice answered, 'Well, don't fall down, then! It's not harder than that.' Sure, it sounds easy when you're thinking it in your head, but not when you're climbing a ladder that's only suspended over the ground by some rope, no matter how strong and thick it is. Especially since that ladder refuses to be still while you're climbing. If you've ever climbed a rope ladder, you know what I mean. The swinging and twisting of the whole thing literally made me sick.

"Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down." I repeated to myself over and over so that I wouldn't catch myself looking down and become paralyzed and be unable to either continue upwards or even return to the ground.

'Come on, Donnie, you've been through worse than this! Turtle up, already!' A voice in my head that reminded me of Raph yelled at me, but that didn't help at all. Once I got up to the branch, I scrambled up onto the foundation of the hut and crawled away from the edge. Jhanna stood with her back against the wall of the small house and smirked at me, but I could see that she was also a little shaken by the whole experience.

"Heh, see? That wasn't so hard, now, was it?" I rolled my eyes at her, got to my feet and walked over to the fence that surrounded the foundation the hut was built on, looking out over the forest and the ground, oh so far below. I had to admit, now that we were up here, even though it really shouldn't have been, the fear I had when I climbed up was slowly abating until it was finally gone. Well, okay, maybe not gone. I still felt a little uneasy looking down at the ground, but the view was beautiful and calm enough for me to start forgetting about it.

Starlee climbed up next, with the Professor only seconds after her, and unlike me and Jhanna, she seemed completely unfazed by the height and her eyes gleamed with excitement. She ran up to fence beside me and looked out over the trees, the waterfall, the mountains in the background and the clear blue sky.

"Wow, look at all of this! Isn't it amazing?" I wanted to smile, seeing how she was so happy and that happiness was contagious, but it's kinda hard to smile when you're winded from climbing two hundred feet up a tree and also slightly nauseous from the sheer giddiness that came with the whole thing. My stomach still had to settle from the worry and fear that had nearly made me ready to puke. So I just tried to nod at her while trying to to sound pleasant, even if I felt like I was the height equivalent of seasick.

"Yeah, great..." I muttered and tried to take deep breaths and leaned over the fence, just in case, forcing myself to think pleasant and happy thoughts. Honestly, I was sure my discomfort was blatantly obvious, as I wasn't exactly the best actor, but Starlee didn't seem to notice and ran inside the hut to take a look. The Professor, on the other hand, was more perceptive and placed his hand on my shell while I tried to breathe. 'Find your happy place, find your happy place', I repeated in my head over and over.

"Are you feeling alright, Donatello?" I gulped and swallowed down some bile that had risen up in the back of my throat, tried- and failed- to smile reassuringly, and nodded. The fear and worry that had practically turned my stomach inside out was practically gone now, and after standing and studying the height for a few minutes, I had started get used to the view and suddenly we didn't seem so high up anymore.

"Yeah, I-I'm okay. I just got a little giddy. I'm not used to being this high up in the air." Traximus had been too big and heavy to climb up the rope ladder and had climbed up the ladder that was glued to the trunk, and now he was scaling the foundation to the hut rather clumsily; for a second I was worried that he would be too heavy for the planks to support him. But he did just fine, though they did creak ominously, and it was a wonder he didn't fall through and down to the ground again. He huffed and removed the axe from the strap on his back, resting it against the wall of the small house. He huffed in exertion.

"Ugh, I'm getting too old for this." He muttered to himself and stretched out his back and shoulders. He then came over to us and placed his hand on my shell. "Don't let those Salamandarians get to you. You have to understand that these people have been afraid and, well, pushed around by Triceratons for quite some time. Seeing both Federation affiliates and a Triceraton, two of the most power-hungry alien races in the galaxy, could definitely... well, you can't blame them for being cautious." I sighed and scrubbed my hand over my face.

"I know, and I don't blame them. If some strange aliens landed on Earth, people would likely react the same way. It's just that..." I trailed off and looked up at Traximus. "It's not fair how they just immediately see you as a monster when you've done and said nothing wrong. They're not even giving you a chance." I rested my chin in my hand and propped my elbow against the railing of the fence, the other arm resting along with railing. Traximus sighed and fingered his claws.

"Mm, yes. That comes with the burden of being a Triceraton. With so many Triceratons throughout thousands of years, aliens are more than likely going to see every Triceraton as the same evil and nasty monsters they have painted themselves to be." I sighed and turned around, leaning my shell against the fence, and eyed the thick leafy canopy above us, the slowly setting sun giving the leaves a bright green and yellow hue. I sighed dejectedly and rested my elbows on the railing.

"Yeah, I guess." I glanced at Jhanna, who seemed a bit resentful at the mentioning of the Salamandarians and glared down at the ground as though it had done her some personal wrong.

"Maybe. But that doesn't give them an excuse to act like jerks!" She muttered loudly enough for us to hear and marched into the hut with a huff. We all looked after her, but she came out after only a minute. She had just been depositing her weapons inside.

I looked up at the sky. Judging by the position of the sun, I guessed that it would get dark in a few hours. But it was still a pretty bright afternoon. Or an abnormally bright evening, since the sun was setting in the distance and it had gotten remarkably chillier in the air. I sat down on the porch and looked up at the others.

"So, uh, should we talk about our next move?" They nodded, and we all sat down in a small circle. The Professor plucked a gigantic leaf from a nearby branch and Starlee took a small scalpel-esque knife from her pocket. Jhanna had given it to her as a just-in-case weapon before we landed, and she now used it as a pen.

"Okay... I think that it would be best to leave as soon as possible." She carved her idea into the leaf with her knife. "By stopping here for longer than we expected, we might have already given the Triceratons a head start to the first piece of the Black Hole Generator. We should leave as soon as we wake up and set course for Zerij immediately. We can eat breakfast on the ship once we've left." I nodded as I thought it over. It was a very good idea, but that wasn't what was on my mind right now.

"That does sound good, but I think we should focus on tonight." They all looked at me confusedly, so I tried to explain. "Well, this Patowan seems to know things about the Black Hole Generator. The more information we can get out of him, the better." Jhanna was sitting cross-legged, rested her elbow on one of her knees and her lightly clenched fist against her cheek, looking rather bored.

"But, Donnie, they don't exactly like us. They were ready to kick us out the minute they saw us." Traximus growled very softly and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Jhanna, they may not have been that friendly, but that is to be expected. We landed on their planet with weapons and team members from two dominant alien species. Of course they are going to be suspicious. You can't really blame them for being cautious." The Professor nodded.

"Yes, and whatever information they have might be helpful for when we land on Zerij, or for the future in general." I nodded, took the knife from Starlee took down our conclusions.

"Then it's settled. We'll take whatever info they can give, then we leave."

After that was decided, no one really knew what we were supposed to do. A few hours passed, and we just basically sat around for a while. Jhanna was obviously bored and was scraping dirt from under her nails or brushing through her hair with her fingers. Starlee was sitting cross-legged against the fence, playing around on her tablet, and Traximus was sharpening his axe, leaning back against the wall of the hut with his head ducked to avoid hitting it against the roof. The Professor and I were looking through the information that the Professor had downloaded into his memory banks and discussing the little we had found out about Zerij.

"Huh, that's weird. You're sure there're no people on the planet? What about any other sort of life forms?" The Professor shook his head.

"I'm as sure as I can be with the limited data we have. The only signs of life encountered there have been some luminescent fish down in the underwater cave systems and a rare few other animals scattered throughout the sparse ecosystems- nothing else." I hummed and rubbed my chin in thought. It all seemed too easy.

"But that doesn't make any sense. If the Intergalactic Alliance hid them in the most well-guarded and dangerous places in the galaxy, why would they hide one of the pieces on a deserted planet with little to no life on it? It doesn't add up." Starlee looked up from her tablet and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Maybe the people who lived there moved away? I mean, the planet is basically nothing but rock and caves. Maybe they didn't have any food or resources left." I bit my lip. I guess that made sense, but still, I couldn't help but feel that there was something more to it than that.

"Maybe. But these guys know something we don't, and I'm gonna find out what." I got up and went to the edge of the porch, starting my careful descent down the unnerving ladder. Jhanna got to her feet.

"I'll come with you." I shook my head and smiled up at her.

"Nah, you don't have to. I think it'll be a while before it's dinner, anyway. No need to run up and down his ladder, right?" I didn't wait for an answer and kept climbing down. It was much easier going down than up. I only looked down once and only got a tiny bit dizzy. Thankfully I reached the ground fairly quickly. The minute I touched the ground, I ran back into the village.

In the middle of the glen, a crowd of Salamandarians was setting up what looked like a large bonfire. Big twigs, branches and even smaller logs were thrown into a big pile, and around it were a bunch of interconnected woven blankets, a safe distance away from the fire. I felt a lot of eyes on me, and while I tried not to care, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under all of their stares. I kept an eye out for Chief Patowan and Mona Lisa as I passed the different tents and Salamandarian villagers. In one of the tents I saw some of them chopping fruit and vegetables, some pouring different kinds of spices and the chopped food into a water-filled medieval metal pot. Y'know, those that they used to hang over a fire in the old days. Looked like dinner wasn't too far away after all.

Suddenly I caught sight of a familiar Salamandarian girl with a brown ponytail walking out of one of the tents with an older man. I grinned jogged up to them. "Chief Patowan!" He turned to look over his shoulder, grinning when he saw me.

"Ah, Donatello. Nice to see you out and about. And you're in good time. Dinner will be ready in less than an hour." I smiled and bowed in respect before him, eyeing Mona Lisa for just a second. She wasn't my reason to walk through the village.

"Chief Patowan, I was looking for you. I have some questions; I thought maybe you would have the answers. Do you have time?" He nodded and bowed back when I did. He then took me by the arm.

"Of course. Please, come with me." He led me into his tent and I was immediately hit by a scent that was all too familiar; incense. The scent was much earthier and- for lack of a better word- natural than the ones Master Splinter had in his room. Still, it was enough to throw me off and make me long for my father even more. But I wasn't given much time to think about that before Patowan lightly pushed me down onto the carpets on the floor. While he was pouring tea into two small cups, I took a good look around the tent. In front of me was a low table, a simple wooden board supported by medium-sized rocks. The ground was covered with beautiful, thick carpets and big pillows were used as chairs. Several candles were placed throughout the room and in one corner was a simple mattress made out of heather flower and moss. Now, the room wasn't that colorful- it mostly consisted of different shades of green, brown and other forest colors. But it had a very calming aura about it, which was very welcoming after so much time surrounded by such cold and emotionless technology.

"So, what did you want to ask me?" Patowan sat down on a pillow opposite me and placed a cup of tea before me. He smiled at me, and his gentle brown eyes did make me feel a bit safer than I had the past few months, but they still reminded me of my father. It made my heart hurt and I had to bite my lip so I wouldn't start crying. I took a deep breath, sipped on the tea and looked up at the man in front of me.

"Well, I was just wondering what you know about the Black Hole Generator." He looked up from his tea and lowered it from his mouth. He put it back down on the table and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Not much, I'm afraid. I only know that it was a machine created for destruction and death, and that the pieces were spread across the galaxy. Unfortunately I only know that one piece was hidden in the deepest cave at the end of the deepest tunnel on the planet Zerij." He looked down at the floor and for moment I could swear he looked ready to cry, or even really scared, so I decided to not ask about Zerij. At least, not yet. I tried to think up another good question to ask, but then he looked up and his eyes fell on my arm.

"You are injured." I looked down at my arm, that was still bandaged from the fight with Traximus. I had started to care less and less about it as it had started to hurt less and less and even though it hadn't come close to being fully healed, it wasn't as big a deal as it was before. I shrugged lightly and fingered on the bandage.

"Eh, it's just a small scratch from a battle with Traximus back in prison. It's no big deal." But the Chief didn't buy it. He just raised an eyebrow, stood and walked over to me.

"May I have a look at it?" I shrugged and peeled off the bandage, revealing the wound. It wasn't as bad as it was before, but it was still slightly red with blood, a light purple around the wound itself, and a bit of pus was seeping out of the edges. I tamped down on the worry from my medical side as I noticed that last bit- if it was leaking pus, it could be a sign of an infection. I'd been trying to prevent that, but my arm had been rather low on my priority list for the past day or so. Patowan hummed in concern as he rotated my arm to get a better look, then walked over to a small shelf filled with bottles and small boxes.

"Don't you worry, I will have that cleaned up in no time. Healing is our planet's specialty." I turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Healing? I thought your specialty was all things nature-slash-agriculture." Patowan chuckled and came back to me with a small bottle of bright red liquid.

"We have many talents. We all specialize in different things. We grow plants, flowers and fruits with special kinds of abilities. Now, please give me your arm." Oh, right. Mona Lisa had mentioned something about that before we landed. I let him take my arm and he opened the bottle and let a single drop of the mysterious liquid land on my wound. I braced myself, ready for it to sting, but nothing happened at first. Then a soft scent filled the air. Like that of sweet blossoms and citrus fruit. Then, as I looked down at my arm, my breath got stuck in my throat.

The wound started to change. The purple bruising around it faded away and the pus and blood either retreated back into my body or slipped out of the wound, along with whatever dirt or bacteria that managed to slip its way into the wound, somehow managing to clean itself. And finally, the whole wound started to close itself up again until all that was left was a scar, a long, thin stripe of pale green on my olive skin. And all this happened in less than ten seconds. My eyes widened and I started to twist my arm around, looking for anything that resembled my wound, blood or something MORE than the harmless mark left behind. But I couldn't find anything; just a scar from a battle wound that would no doubt disappear after some time. I flew up from my seat, grasped my arm and stared at the old man in front of me, who was smirking at me as though he was used to this reaction.

"What did you do? What'd you do?!" I twisted and turned my arm to find something, anything, that would prove that he was just tricking me. Some kind of illusion or something that he pulled on guests to their planet to freak them out. But he just laughed me, put the bottle down on the table and placed a calming hand on my arm. For a reptilian creature, his hand was surprisingly warm and soft- I wondered absently if April thought the same of my touch... Although my years of experimenting with various chemicals, using and repairing (read: blindly sticking my hands up into the Shellraiser when I can't always see what I'm aiming for) complex machinery and dealing with- and cutting myself on- plenty of sharp instruments had calloused my hands up quite a bit.

"As I said, our planet is very good at healing. This particular potion comes from a rare flower, the fire lily, which only blooms during the spring and only for a few weeks. It has powers that can heal most any injuries and cure most diseases. We have been harvesting as many as we can every year for centuries and used the potion to keep our people and the environment healthy." His gentle smile faded away and he looked down at the ground.

"At least, we did until the Triceratons came here. Now we barely have enough food to feed our village, or enough potions to heal our wounded. The flowers are so few nowadays that the potion is too weak to heal and cure everything. Now it can only fully heal smaller wounds while only slightly improving the more severe ones." My eyes widened and my fingers lightly grazed over my arm. He had a potion that could heal wounds and cure diseases, that had gotten so weak over the years, that was in short supply, and he had wasted it on a wound that wasn't even that severe?

I looked down at the scar. It was so bright green that it was easy to see, but didn't quite stick out like a sore thumb. I smiled, looked into Patowan's eyes and bowed my head at him.

"Thank you, Chief Patowan. Thank you very much." He smiled, bowed his head back at me and stroked his beard.

"You are quite welcome, child." I looked up again and then thought of something, sitting down again.

"Uh, with all due respect, Chief, I'd still like know why almost everyone in the village had weapons at the ready when we came into your village. And why did your people try to kill us earlier? I mean, Mona Lisa told us that Salamandarians have always lived peacefully and calmly. So why change that all of a sudden?" He looked up at me when I mentioned his granddaughter and sighed.

"That is a long story, Donatello. For over a decade, now, life has been so much harder for us... since our children were taken that fateful day. Triceratons have come here more often, stealing our food and resources and taking many young Salamandarians as their personal slaves or as prisoners. Just to keep us in line. There was very little I could do to protect my people, and it only got worse as time went on." He sat down in front me again and sipped a little on his tea.

"After a few years, we realized that the Triceratons would not leave us alone no matter what we did or did not do. So we had to learn to at least defend ourselves. We started to make our own weapons and learned how to use them. We have patrols and guards out in the woods every hour of the day to keep an eye out for Triceratons so we will know immediately when a threat is near. Whenever they come to try and take from us, we try to fight them off, with varying results. Many of our old traditions had to be sacrificed in doing so." My eyes were glued on the old man in front of me, and even though I wanted to speak, my tongue felt dry in my mouth. Still, I managed to squeak out,

"... Old traditions?" He looked up again and sighed sadly.

"It has been tradition for every young Salamandarian to follow in their parents' footsteps when they got old enough. To become hunters, gatherers, healers and so on and so forth. In fact, Mona Lisa would have grown up to be a fine healer when she reached adulthood, just like her poor mother and father. But, sadly, they were taken from her just before she was taken away from Filione." He paused to take a deep, shaky breath and wipe his hand over his eyes before he continued. "And now almost every Salamandarian child has to prepare themselves to fight and be able to protect themselves against Triceratons and other dangerous off-worlders." My jaw hung wide open and I felt like my tongue had shriveled up and disappeared. I was speechless. And I found myself getting some more respect for Mona, now that I realized that this girl had most likely seen her parents die before she was taken away by the ones who killed them.

"That's awful..." He sighed again and gripped his teacup so tightly that his green knuckles started to turn white.

"Mm, yes, it is. Still, I am happy that we all live on our own planet. Since so many species in the galaxy now frown upon reptilian species these days, life has become so much harder for reptiles everywhere. If we lived on any other planet, we would most likely be treated worse than we are here. Thus life is better here than on many other planets." I looked up from the my tea at those last sentences and almost dropped the cup in shock. 'Many aliens frowns upon reptilian species'? I put the cup down in front of me.

"Wait, what? What do you mean? Why are other species looking down on reptiles?" Patowan smiled paternally at me, like he felt sorry for me, but also seemed surprised I didn't know this.

"You did not know?" I shook my head at him and he looked at me pityingly. "Well, ever since the Triceratons took power in the galaxy, they tried to take power over many planets, most notably planets with reptilian inhabitants. And because of this, a lot of other species started to believe that all reptiles either helped or supported Triceratons. Or that we were all the same; cold-blooded, spineless, dishonest, cruel, disrespectful, ruthless and just plain evil. In other words, that all reptiles are like Triceratons. Thus, it has led to reptiles having a harder time getting employed, finding homes or finding their place on their planets. Some planets has even banned reptiles from coming to their world." My jaw hit the ground and the tea cup fell out of my hand, spilling the tea all over the mats.

"What...? But, that... that's, that's not fair!" I wanted to say that it was racist, but for some reason I didn't think that these creatures would think of this as racism as much as, um... speciesism, I guess. Patowan jumped slightly at my outburst, but he collected himself rather quickly and took a breath, seemingly thinking over his words.

"No, it is not. But sadly, it is the way it is. And I am afraid that these thoughts and ideas towards reptiles will make your journey much harder. Many aliens will be against you and try to stop you, or believe you're not doing what you're doing for something good, but rather to overthrow the Triceratons or get attention. You will not have many people on your side in this matter." I sighed and fought against the urge to slam my head down on the table in front of me. Great. As if this journey wouldn't be hard enough as it was. My eyes fell on the cup that was still lying there on the ground and reached down to grab it.

"Yeah, I realize that. But my entire planet is at stake, here, as well as billions of innocent people. People that have never even heard of a Triceraton. They've done nothing, and they don't deserve to die because of some thousands-of-years-old vendetta. I have to try and save my planet, even if it means fighting against the entire galaxy." I put the cup down in front me again and when I looked up at Patowan, he had a gentle and somewhat proud look in his eyes.

"My child, your determination warms my heart. It is so rare to find a soul ready to fight against everything in his way to achieve his goal in these times of war. I hope that you will succeed to save your planet and stop that tyrant Zanramon from ruling over this galaxy." I smiled at him, but I still couldn't help but feel I hadn't gotten the answers I was looking for when I sought him out. Still, I had time. I could always ask him during dinner. My friends would be there, too, in case I forgot to ask something. Though that possibility was pretty slim. I had never been one to forget important details.

Patowan turned to look out of the tent as a few Salamandarians carried that huge pot toward the bonfire. He closed his eyes for a second, grabbed his walking stick and stood up before walking up to me and grabbing me by the arm, making me stand up again.

"Dinner will be put on the fire soon. You should get your friends to join us." He looked up at me curiously. "Tell me, have you ever had Filionian forest soup with bark bread?" I wrinkled my nose at him. I didn't know why, but that sounded extraordinarily unappetizing- and that was coming from me, the one who had grown up on algae and worms. I tried not to look disgusted by it, to avoid being disrespectful, but darn it, my nose was wrinkling like it had a mind of its own!

"Can't say I have, Chief." I said as casually as I could muster. He smiled and started to walk out of the tent, still gripping my arm, and led me out towards the bonfire.

"Then you are in for quite a treat. I guarantee it."

A/N: And done! So, yeah, I got the whole reptile-prejudice thing from Zootopia, big deal! I came up with the idea and thought it was good, so I'm sorry if some of you are gonna sneer at the idea of putting racism or prejudice in a fanfiction, but I don't care. Besides, I think it will give me a lot of good material for the future, as far as world building goes and even character development.

Also, the idea of the healing potion and flower was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia and Tangled. In case you're interested.

Either way, I hope you liked this chapter and please review, favorite and follow! G'night everybody!