Bah! It's been too long! I thank all my readers for being so patient with me: life has been hard lately because of the season, but I managed to finally get this chapter out! I promise that the next chapter will come out shortly in about a week or so.

Now here we are back with Raphael! Hopefully he starts to heal!

This will be a mature story due to strong language, blood/gore, and suggestive material.

Hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment or fave.

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"Uh! I 'm so hungry!" Raphael threw his hands up in the air. Claire left about ten minutes ago to get him something to eat, but he soon grew tired of waiting. He hadn't eaten for an entire day and he frankly didn't like going that long without food. At this point he thought he would eat anything.

He was now sitting up against one of the tent's supports, his legs splayed before him. The healer did a nice job of stitching him up and even gave him some sort of leaves to chew on to dull the pain. However, the leaves did a poor job of keeping him filled and now he was feeling its effects. He couldn't even feel his leg at this point, but as soon as he had proper movement back, he would be out of their and back with his brothers. No doubt they would want to know what he's been up to, but overall, he figured they haven't even noticed his being gone.

"Calm down, boy, I have your food!" The tigress entered the tent, moving the flap of animal skin that acted as the door to the tent. She held a small bowl of strawberries and a loaf of bread along with a cup of water. Claire handed the items to the turtle, who took it gingerly, as if he was afraid it might disappear any second. She then sat with her legs crossed on the prickly grass, watching him devour his meal, not even complaining that there was no meat, "I never got your name, by the way."

The turtle glanced up to her, speaking between bites, "Raphael." He said simply, going back to his food, shoveling the berries into his mouth, not even bothering to hardly chew before taking another bite.

"Raphael." Claire rolled the name on her tongue, getting a feel for the other mutant, "How did you get so injured in the first place?" she'd wondered this to herself, contemplating that it may have been a bear or even a Suit that attempted to capture him. After all, using deadly force to get what they wanted was not uncharacteristic of them.

This made the turtle pause his chewing and slowly place his bowl on the ground, between his legs. His face seemed to contort in uncertainty, as if deciding whether to tell the truth or not. After a moment he sighed heavily, scratching the back of his head under where his mask knotted together, "I got into a fight with my brothers."

This made the tigress gasp slightly, "Your brothers did this to you?" she almost didn't believe it.

"Well, ya see, we were helping some friends move into a new place and they always kind of expected me to do the heavy lifting and stay up late and practically do almost everything. After about a week of this, I was tired. My brother smacked into me and made me fall over and I sort of went off on him, punching him in the face and all that." He paused again, thinking, "After I punched him I ran off into the forest, just to blow off some steam. It was only about two hours later when something attacked me. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but I figure it was a Purple Dragon or something."

Claire nodded, absorbing all the new information. Although she felt for the turtle, she couldn't help but think that he wasn't telling the whole story, but she didn't press any further than she felt was necessary.

"Now I got some questions for you." Raphael pressed his hands on the ground beside his hips to help himself sit up straighter, then he bent his good leg and rested his hands on his knee, "What are all you mutants doing in the forest and where did you all come from?"

She sighed, knowing that this question would come up sooner or later, but not wanting to review the answer in her mind, "I will tell you, Raphael, but I will not tell it again, for it is bad luck to share this story more than once to a single person." Her voice became firm and serious. She continued when the turtle motioned for her to continue, taking a deep breath, "All whom you see in the village was bred from a laboratory for the specific use of fighting to make their owner's profit. It is similar to dog fighting, but with mutants instead of plain animals. Our owners wouldn't take good care of us and forced us to kill our own, our family, our friends," he swallowed hard, coughing a little, "We escaped from our owner's henchmen, who we call 'Suits' because they only wear black business suits and sunglasses. Personally, I escaped with help from Gibson when I was young and being trained for fighting. He stole me from my crate and brought me here with his congregation of mutants he rescued." She motioned to her contorted flesh, "This is what I sustained from three months of my training. Many have been fighting for years, like many of the men of the village. Because of the torment many of us were put through, several of the mutants might refuse to speak to you."

Raphael was speechless. What could he say now? So instead of saying anything, he reached for a single leaf the healer gave him, extending it out to Claire. He wasn't quite sure why he did this, but something seemed to tell him to, maybe to help dull her pain she seemed to carry like a lead weight, or something like that, he couldn't be certain. This seemed to amuse the tigress, taking the leaf gingerly. When her hand touched the turtles, it was as if a spark of life passed between her to him, consuming his soul, as if only the two of them existed in the whole universe. However, as soon as she moved her hand away, the feeling stopped and she began chewing on the leaf, smiling slightly to herself, like some secret joke was told.

Once again, I apologize for my late timing, but the next chapter should be out by next Monday!