Sorry for the delay. School and all. Hopefully I will be able to update this story more frequently, things should be heating up soon..

It had been over a week since Leo had written the letters to his family. He made sure to allow himself enough time to recover from his injuries, which were already scabbed over and not nearly as painful.

The turtle had managed to make his village rounds, and found himself on the outskirts of Astilla. From what he could tell; there had been no violent activities in the small town or in the surrounding area during his absence. For this he was thankful, had he missed an attack on the people and allowed the citizens to suffer because of his failure, he would feel deep regret.

He jumped around the tree line, looking for one thing: a post office. Sending his letters to his family was now his number one priority.

He still felt sick, thinking back to how close he had come to leaving them forever. The thought constantly plagued his mind.

Too close. Must do better. BE better.

Momentarily pushing the thought aside, he noticed a small building, or shack, to be more accurate, that had an unknown purpose. No other structure in the village was the post office, and so, using the process of elimination, it became clear that that was where the villagers were dealing with their mail. To be certain, he watched the entrance, paying special attention to those who entered or left. After a short wait, a child and her mother came up to the entrance of the establishment. The little girl was skipping with joy, and humming aloud. Just before entering, the mother handed her daughter a simple white envelope.

Bingo.

Once the duo exited the small post office, Leo snuck his way towards the door. It was already the time of day where families and individuals were sitting at their tables, eating their supper; so the streets were pretty well empty.

The young turtle ducked into the open doorway unseen. There was a small hallway that opened up to the main room. No one was at the counter, the town was close-knit enough so that such places could be left unguarded. Taking a pen, and a letter from the mail bin that sat near the counter, Leo quickly copied down the address to a point where mail replies would make it to Astilla, but the designated house would be non-existent, to give him a chance to grab his family's letters for him before someone mistook them as their own.

A hoarse cough came from outside, and talking continued to approach the building. Leo froze, but his ninja skills were too well tuned to allow him to panic in this situation. There was not a lot of hiding places to choose from, but the ninja was quick to jump behind the counter and squeeze into the cubby at its base.

Two men walked into the room.

"We better get moving if we want to get to the orphanage." said one.

"Esperar! This will only take a second!" the other answered. The sound of writing could be heard on top of the counter.

The orphanage?

Leo loved it when the villagers talked in English. It allowed him to relate and better understand them.

"Vamos!" the first one said. This time he was answered by a dramatic sigh. After some shuffling of papers, and some quick paced footsteps, Leo was once again alone.

Alone.

He was beginning to hate that word. It was cold and miserable.

The turtle sighed half-heartedly and rolled out of his hiding place. He stood next to the bucket full of envelopes ready to be sent off. Taking one last loving glance at the papers in his hand, he let them drop to sit amongst the dozens of others that lay in the bin.

Sudden cheering sparked his attention. He rushed to the doorway and jumped for the tree line, where he could move about with ease. There were a couple torches that were lit to the right of the church. The sky was already dusking, but Leo wasn't overly worried to be left out in the dark now. He would just have to move slower and with more caution, after all, sooner or later he wanted to become semi-nocturnal and be able to scout the lands in the dark.

Eagerly he made his way closer to the warm light of the flames. He discovered that they were in fact illuminating the orphanage and the immediate surrounding area where a few chairs were set up. People were making their way into the light, quickly filling up the available seating, but more came and they just continued to stand. The area was alive with laughs and good-spirited chatter.

Leo looked on. His mouth was slightly open in a hopeful smile, his eyes gleamed with interest as the reflection of the fires danced in his irises. How he longed to simply walk into the crowd and join in on the conversations, but for obvious reasons he restrained.

From the doors of the orphanage came the priest. His smile rivaled that of Leo's in pure glee. He stood in the center of the open area just in front of the doors and cleared his throat. Upon hearing the sound, all talking seized and attention fell on him.

"Bienvenido! Welcome, my brothers and sisters, to the Astilla Orphanage's annual play. The children have been working very hard to prepare for you all, this years' big show! So without further ado, I would like to present la historia de Quetzelcoatle!" He ducked off to the side, gesturing to the front of the establishment.

From behind the building came none other than Pablo, dressed up in green feathers and make-shift Aztec armour. He spoke in loud words that Leo could not understand. He had hoped the event would be entirely in English, but nope.

More kids made their way on and off of the 'stage' throughout the play. The young turtle had no idea what the story was about.

There's a snake. And he died? No he's still alive... I don't understand...

So much was going on between the dozen children up front that, had the story been as basic as possible, it would be hard to follow. Nevertheless, it offered a sort of comfort to Leo. Seeing the community so happy and together warmed his ever lonesome heart.

Santiego watched from the side, still grinning, a look of overwhelming pride on his face. Those were all his children up there. The one's that he had unofficially adopted and looked out for for a good part of his life, just as he did the church.

Leo smiled inwardly. It was like Splinter and his brothers. Though his father was in no way of blood relation to his bros, he and the turtles still acted like it. As a family.

Stop thinking about them!

He chastised too late. His nose crinkled from a sting and his eyes watered, threatening to spill over.

Why does this keep happening? If any of them ever found out that I started to cry at nothing, they'd never let me live it down. I have to stop acting like a baby if I ever want to see them again.

With the aid of his little self-pep talk, he was able to stifle the tears and focus again on the production that was still taking place.

Unfortunately, the fiesta didn't last much longer, as a loud raucous approached the town, gun-fire and all.