Book 2: HomeFront

Expansion

 The orange light of the sun barely lined the mountain tops. So high, the air was brisk in the morning, shedding light into the dew of the grass and bush. The high altitude took some of his breath away from his lungs, but did not affect him greatly. Leonardo was climbing the mountains at such an early hour. Beside him, his sensei and Venus strode upwards into the sky. A pretty turtle woke him up earlier than usual. With Miwa standing in his room's doorframe, she insisted that they all wake earlier to make their trip up this mountain for reasons he had not known, but a lesson was sure to follow it.

Nowadays, he was a lot more tired. Having been used to Splinter's lessons, even the most rigorous ones, he could not prepare his body for whatever Miwa had in store. But, most of that weight was from him and not her. For the next few days, they've noticed something in the terrapin's behavior, Venus especially. She's known the turtle for a long while now and noticed a change in his training habits. Usually, Leo was the water jock. When Splinter gave a water break, he was the first one to ramble on about the importance of water and keeping hydrated. You'd think Donatello would spit out the health facts but when it came to physical matters, Leonardo was on it to make sure his crew was hydrated. With the added factor of being aquatic creatures, it was of most importance to him. Recently, he refused water until he was able to complete an obstacle course outside of the Wu Kwan in the time frame Miwa permitted. Numerous times was he given a chance for water. Even Venus, who felt uncomfortable knowing that his water intake was scarce, had to try to force feed him his bottle until he took it passively. Then, right after, he'd toss the bottle aside and go at it at a full sprint.

They were coming to a flat plane of the rock. Not necessarily the top, the flat plane was a large area in which you could run to one end and grow tired before you could try to run back; the perfect space to work out on in needed be. Thankfully, they had nothing on their backs for they needed nothing but their own bodies. On the topic of water, a freshwater stream runs down the mountainside, which was not too far (That is if Leo's going to drink from it).

"Why do you think you're up here?" Those were the first words he heard his sensei say since they woke up this morning. The male terrapin had to snap himself out of his own thoughts to register her sudden use of words. Miwa stopped, looking over her shoulder with a neutral face. Leonardo rolled his shoulders forward.

"I'm not sure. I thought it was the mystical, kung fu thing to do." He joked with a chuckle. That earned a smile from Miwa. No teeth showed, but the corners of her mouth lifted, as well as Venus'.

"You are somewhat right. We hiked up here to give you a new perspective." She peered over to Venus' direction. The female terrapin nodded as if her opinion were as important as Miwa's. Her brown eyes looked out to the scenery off the cliff. She stretched her arm out, welcoming the world into it as she spun. "Look out, what do you see?" she instructed. Leonardo, hesitant at first, took few steps. From someone who could jump rooftop to rooftop, he was very careful not to fall off a mountain. His two toes stopped short of the drop off nearly two feet away from the edge.

So many years, he looked at a world of bright lights and bustling over a high throne. What he saw no, was nothing of the like. Barely a soul walked instead of running to their destination. Parts of the hills were dotted with livestock grazing peacefully in their corrals. Carving through these hills was the stream that ran through the mountain they were on. Just then, the sun began to show its illuminating face over the mountain. New light revealed the hidden shadows of the bamboo far away, casting them on the quaint village thriving beside it. Even the touch of sun on his nose felt good and gave him good vibes. He smiled.

"Just about everything. There's a small village, the bamboo forest, mountains, streams..." He'd go more into detail, yet his voice trailed off as he basked in the scenery the sun had revealed to him.