Book 2: HomeFront

Catch Me When I Land

 "Leo... Leo... Leonardo." The distant voice drew closer and closer into his ear until he opened up his tired eyelids. Immediately, the brightness of the once dark room shocked his retinas. Leonardo blinked to adjust his eyes to it, rubbing them as well. When he could begin seeing without too much light damaging his eyes, he saw where the voice came from. Venus was hunched over in her blue robe. Her hands were clenched together by her knees that made it look like her robe was swallowing them. On her face was a bright smile, obviously eager.

"Hm?" Only the slits of his eyes were visable in the light.

"We're here."

"Hm? Where?" His arms slipped from underneath his head. The palms of his hands pressed against the floor, placed underneath his chest so he could raise his torso off the ground. Surprisingly, there was no soreness from his sleeping position. Now that he thought about it, his backpack did a pretty darn good job as a pillow. It wasn't soft and fluffy, but it was solid and carried his head safely for hours. Venus stood up and placed her hands on her sides. She hopped up on top of one of the low standing boxes, landing in a crouched position.

"Well, not the village, but we're in China." She pointed to where the light was hiding behind the boxes, continuing to smile.

"China?" Curious, Leonardo began to rise and headed towards her. She grew delighted that he wanted to see and hopped off of the box before he could to lead to way. The female turtle played follow the leader with the tired male through boxes and thrown luggage around the floor. "Did the alarm go off yet?" He yawned lightly. Honestly, he had hoped he could get more sleep with his unsuspecting bedding.

"No..." He voice trailed off. Venus was obviously distracted. "I just thought you might want to see this in case it got dark when we land." They had been heading towards a natural light in spite of the artificial ones hanging overhead. Around every corner, he had thought the light would show its face, yet there was always another box behind it. Then, there was one final turn Venus made that got them to the other side of the plane. When he turned the corner, he saw the short stretch of wall that led to a door. On this door was a window to the outside. With a new found pep in her step, Venus trotted over excitedly. Leonardo stayed behind to see the light hit her bright face with the sun's warm rays. She turned to him, tapping her finger on the window. She had pounded it so hard he thought she might break the glass. Not to take that chance by keeping her waiting, Leonardo sauntered over by her side. His eyes had better adjusted as he walked around and but they were not prepared for the sight.

Down below lie symmetrical polygons of various shades of green and brown. The male turtle inhaled and kept his breath in, fascinated by the new view. Puffy white clouds floated so close to the aircraft that it felt like something he could only imagine. So many years had he lived underground in the dark. He lived the floors on the Earth, seeing the tiniest of details in rock and concrete. Now, he was as high above his world as he could. So many tiny details had been ignored and conjoined themselves together to create plain, smooth images from the aerial. He took his eyes off the breathtaking view briefly when Venus moved her head to face the sun that was hiding up in the corner of the window.

"It looks like early noon." She guessed by its position. "I hope I didn't wake you for nothing. I just thought you might think it's cool."

"No," he shook his head. "no, this is pretty awesome." His look of awe turned into a look of joy as he felt the sunshine warm his face as well as the relief look Venus showed. Of course she wanted him to see this if not, just herself to see this with someone else. It had been almost a year since she and her sister had tagged along in their clan. For months, they had lived the underground railroad of great light contrast and noise. Now, she could see the sweet freedoms of the countryside below her. Flashbacks of the scenery, the people, and the customs returned from her core memories. It must have been nice to feel and see the motion of going back home.