Chapter Text
A little girl ran to the shore of the pond, as the sun set on one of the last days of Indian Summer. Giggling as the water tickled her legs, she followed the shoreline splashing water everywhere she went.
Suddenly, the sound of birds caught her attention. Looking up, she saw a flock of crows fighting over something, picking it up, dragging it a few feet, and dropping it again. She arms up to the birds, waving her arms and yelling at them to scare them away.
Coming up to the thing the birds were fighting over, she found a turtle not much bigger then her hand, trying to crawl back to the water. She gasped as she realized he was dragging one of his front legs, and it was bleeding.
Scooping it up in her hands, she ran back to her house, yelling for her father. The man burst from the house, and headed towards his daughter.
“April what’s wrong? Are you hurt?” the little girl shook her head, and held up the wounded reptile.
“Daddy I was walking by the pond and walkin’ ‘round the boat dock, like where I’m aloud too, and there were a buncha crows and they were attackin’ something and I ran up to them to see what it was an’ they were hurting this baby turtle and know he needs me to keep him and make sure he gets better and helps me practice ‘cause I wanna be a Vet.” she took a deep breath after she was finished, then looked up at her father with big blue eyes. “Can I keep him Daddy, please? I promise I’ll take care of him.”
Kirby sighed, and looked at his daughter’s begging eyes. His wife wouldn’t be happy about it, and he knew they really shouldn’t take the animal from the wild, but it might just help the little girl transition and by the time it was healed enough to be released, it would be too cold to do so. He sighed and ruffled his daughter’s hair.
"Okay, you can keep him, but you have to take care of him okay?" She nodded at him.
"I promise." the little girl said solemnly.
"Alright then," her father said, patting her on the back. "Go up into the hallway closet and find box for him for the night." April gave the injured turtle to him to look over, and bounded up the stairs. Kirby shook his head she red head disappeared, and went to the bathroom to see what he could do for the turtle.
Later that night, after getting the animal taken care of (his wounds consisting of a crack on his shell and a bad cut on his right front leg), he was settled into his temporary home.April fussed over him, making sure the animal was okay.
"We’re gonna be best friends." she cooed to him, petting his shell.
"Time for bed, April." her father said, coming up behind her " You name him yet?"
"Yep." she said, "His name is Raphael."
