Chapter 08: A Whole New World

The thing with being hurt and not able to move properly was that it really limited Raph's options to kill time. He couldn't train, he couldn't join his brothers on patrols, and Splinter had clearly forbidden that he tried to punch the practice dummy again, so yes, being hurt was pretty boring.

And he was dependent on his brothers or Casey or April to keep him entertained by talking to him or – more often – play cards or a board game.

Walking over to the living room on his crutches Raph was thinking of the most exciting thing he had experienced yesterday – smuggling the bouquet of roses Casey had given him the other day out of his room because the roses had been totally withered already. Raph was sure he had done a quite good job. He had put the withered flowers into a plastic bag, waited until his brothers had left for their evening patrol, and then he had walked over to the kitchen on his crutches with the plastic bag handles over one of his wrists. He had stuffed the bag into the garbage can as deep as possible, and his brothers hadn't asked any questions today, so Raph felt certain that he had done a marvelous job and the roses had went undetected.

When he arrived in the living room, he found it empty and silent. His brothers had obviously left for their patrol already, he thought. And Casey and April had one of these stupid tests tomorrow, so they wouldn't show up in the lair today. He knew because he had sent them both texts earlier today.

Raph heaved a sigh and walked back to his room, slumping down on the bed minutes later, and placed the crutches next to his bed.

He frowned when he looked at them. Sure, he still hated them, but they weren't as bad as he had expected. At least they were looking cool now with all the red tape. And he had to admit, walking on them was so much easier than jumping around on one leg or rolling around on an office chair. He would never say that crutches were cool – perish the thought! – but at least crutches weren't as stupid and uncool as they had seemed to be in the first place.

But that still didn't help with his current boredom-problem.

Well, he could get back to the living room and watch TV, but he had done that a lot lately, and he really didn't feel like it now. Or maybe he could play another video game. But he had already beaten all of Mikey's high scores, leaving the youngest turtle speechless and wide-eyed. No, he didn't feel like that either.

What he really felt like was getting this stupid support split off and running around topside, beating Foot ninja and Purple Dragons and jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he was all exhausted and sweating and feeling alive.

All he felt right now was totally bored.

He let his eyes wander around his room. There had to be something that could get him out of this boredom.

And finally, his eyes were resting on the book April had brought him a few days ago and that he had placed on the shelf at the head of his bed and not touched ever since.

April had said that it was a lot about fights and blood and killing, so that sounded okay. It at least didn't sound girly. So maybe he should give it a try.

He made himself comfortable, took the book and opened it.

The letters were sort of overwhelming at first, all this letters! No pictures! Heck, this was so different from reading a magazine!

But then he blinked the confusion away, waited until the letters formed into words, and words formed into sentences. And then he started reading.

There were rumors about the Shadow Woods. Travelers had went missing in there, and rumors said that you could still hear them screaming.

Rumors said that in Shadow Woods, not only the animals, but their shadows too were alive, that your own shadow would betray you in there, starting moving without following your movements, developing a life of its own, reaching out for you, attacking you, sucking out your soul, taking away your flesh and making it its own, until all that was left of you was a shadow, a hollow shadow without a body, a whisper, a scream.
That was what they said about the Shadow Woods. But Lerani had never given much about rumors or what people said. He had always had more important things to do.
And so he entered the Shadow Woods without any fear, only his feet were cold from having walked for too long in the snow, but then the cold crept up his body, freezing his inside, and from the corner of his eye he could see how his shadow lifted a hand, although his own hands were hanging on his sides.
Oh, he should have listened!

Raph's jaw literally dropped while reading this. No, this surely wasn't girly at all! No, this was good. Heck, this was brilliant! This was a whole new world for him!

When his brothers arrived back home from their patrol, they were a little surprised to not find Raph in the living room. This was where he spent most of his time now, watching TV and playing video games.

"At least he's not beating another one of my high scores," Mikey said.

"I thought he had already beaten all of your high scores," Donnie replied, and Mikey shot him an angry glance.

"For now, yes. But I will get them all back, I swear, and if it's the last thing I'm gonna do!"

Leo just rolled his eyes. "Well, video games or not, let's go get him. I guess he wouldn't mind joining us for some 'Super Robo Mecha Force Five!'."

His brothers nodded their agreement.

But when they had had arrived at Raph's room and silently opened the door after there hadn't been any reply to their five times of knocking, their eyes widened in surprise as they found their brother burying his nose in a book.

After a moment of shock Leo closed the door again.

"Is Raph…reading…a book?" Mikey asked.

"It looks like it," Donnie said. "That's…weird."

"Is it possible he got brain-switched again? That happened to him once. Maybe it happened again! Maybe he has switched brains with Donnie!" Mikey called out in a panicked voice.

"Calm down, shellbrain!" Donnie replied. "I'm still me which means Raph is still him."

"But what if only half your brains got switched?" Mikey said. "You're so intelligent, Donnie, you wouldn't even notice that half your brain is missing with all the knowledge you have stored in the other half!"

"Relax, Mikey!" Donnie tried again. "As unusual as it is, Raph is just reading a book."

"But…"

"Donnie's right, Mikey," Leo chimed in. "And he seems to be pretty intrigued by it, so we better leave him alone."

"But…"

"It's okay, Mikey," Leo said again.

"But…"

"'Super Robo Mecha Force Five!' now!" Leo finally ordered, shoving Mikey back to the living room. "Come on!"

"But…"

Donnie just shook his head slightly and followed them.