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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Donatello: The Ring is a short story appearing in Turtle Soup volume 2, #1.
Appearing in Donatello: The Ring[]
Characters[]
Species[]
- Mutant turtle
- Giant turtles
Location[]
- Northampton
- Woods near Jones Farm
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
Donatello walks through the woods of Northampton, reaching a spot that Splinter had told him about. He finds it to be a good place to be alone. As he walks, a dragonfly zips past him and he turns his head to watch it, not paying attention to where he’s going.
He is near a cliff and steps off to take a long, painful tumble down its steep side. At the bottom, he sits up and rubs his head, glad at least that no one saw that. Then he realizes he chipped off a piece of his carapace.
Donatello holds up the chipped piece, noticing the layers. An unseen presence takes note of him and begins a narration, but Donatello does not notice. The Unknown speaks of rings; how their lives are a ring, their race is a ring, and so is the past and the future. Meanwhile, Donatello is admiring how the little piece of shell glints in the light. He likes the little cross-sections on the edge and thinks that because there are so many, he must be a complex guy.
He then scratches himself, noting that he didn’t do himself any major damage, but that shells are itchy. The Unknown speaks of how Donatello is part of their ring, that he represents both ends of the eternal circle.
Donatello relaxes in the grass, watching a caterpillar on a tree branch. He thinks how once that caterpillar would have been his dinner, but his tastes have evolved to finer foods – like pizza. Then he jumps up to practice with his bō, while the Unknown speaks of how they once crawled on their bellies, but tired of hugging the Earth and rose up to stride the world as its rulers. But their people fell when they lost sight of where they were going.
Donatello stops practicing and decides to mediate, to center himself and make himself better. The Unknown speaks of watching the ages pass as they waited, and the ring circled on. But then Donatello and his brothers came round as the ring spun anew. Their race is upright once more, and it is glad it waited to see him.
Suddenly Donatello’s eyes snap open and he jumps to his feet, weapon in hand, wanting to know who’s there, as he’s sensed a presence. He looks up to see a humongous turtle looking down at him from the tree tops. Donatello shouts his surprise. The turtle speaks of how his patience has been rewarded and then takes its leave.
The encounter leaves Donatello feeling that the woods are a special place, giving him quiet for his mind, and a sense of permanence for his soul. He races back towards the farmhouse, determined to soon bring the rest of the gang to that spot so they too, could feel their roots.
Notes[]
- The contents page lists the title as “The Ring” while the first page reads “Donatello: The Ring”.
- “The Ring” is a necessary prelude to the full-length “Twilight of the Ring”.