Sunlight and Seawater

Sunlight, warmth… hunger, hunting… food… basking, sunlight… sleep.

Sunlight… noises, look, danger? DANGER, human, hide, hide, flee, NO, trapped! Danger! Hide, hide hide hide, fear!

Cold, dark, no sunlight? No warmth? Hide!

Hunger. Hide… hunger!

Dark. Loud! Movement, noises, cold, then warm? Food, not enough food… hunger.

Hide. Noises.

Not alone! Danger?

Turtle! Different! Friend? Turtle. Yes, friend.

Noises and cold and moving and hunger, again and again and again but always Friend.

Always Friend.

Dark, night? Movement, loud, looking, danger, looking, always looking, hide.

Later, quieter, danger gone for now.

Buzzing. Food?

Not food, watch it, sting, pain.

PAIN!

The cage presses in.

Everything hurts! My limbs tingle.

The cage creaks, the cage breaks. I tumble free.

Friend cries out. The insect buzzes away, I hear it go. My head aches.

The world is blurry. Everything hurts and I don’t know what to do.

Friend whimpers. Her cage is in pieces. Mine is too. The pieces are sharp, my foot stings. Injury?

It’s dark.

They will come back, we have to go. Friend and I move but something isn’t right. Nothing is right. My body feels distant, like I can’t control it. Friend is different too. Friend is the same but… new? Why am I aware of this? How am I thinking this?

I’m scared.

We run. We run until we can’t anymore. I’m so tired and it’s dark and I’m scared.

I’m so scared.

Friend and I curl into each other. I can’t hide in my shell any more. Friend never could. So we just sit there.

Eventually, we sleep.

I’m awake now. The light has changed. I blink but everything stays blurry. We’re lying on something hard and rough, like rock but not. It smells bad. There are huge, cold items on either side of us, like what the cages were. They smell bad too. As I watch, the shadows stretch longer. The light is here, but fading. Did we sleep a whole day?

No danger for now. Friend is still sleeping. I look at her, she looks different. Her flippers are longer, and bend in new places. Do mine do that too? I flex a leg but fall, landing hard on the ground. I move to get a foot underneath to lever myself up, and pause.

That’s new.

I stare for a while. I wiggle my fingers. I have fingers now? Huh. I sit up (I can sit up now too?) and hold my not-foot, my hand, in front of my face. I turn it slowly. The other one too. Three long, jointed digits on each hand. I flex each of them, one at a time. The third bends strangely, almost backwards to the other two. It’s like the rough hands of the Bad Men, the humans who stole me from my home. A shiver of revulsion tingles along my carapace. But they could pick things up, they picked me up. Can I pick things up?

There is something shiny under one of the Cold Things we are hiding between. I reach out… and I grab it. I grab it! Holy shit I can grab it!!

Wait, where did I learn what holy shit means? Did I hear one of the Bad Men say it? I don’t remember. Can I understand human sounds now? There is so much going on in my brain right now! I have to share this with Friend!! I drop the shiny thing and shake her shell until she stirs. She raises her head, blinks, and lets out a soft chirp.

I wiggle my fingers in her face, eyes wide with excitement, then grab the shiny thing again. She coos in confusion. Look! I want to say. Look at this!

I hold it out to her and after a pause, she moves to take it. But her arms are different. They’re the same flippers as Before, just longer. She doesn’t have fingers like mine, she can’t hold things like I can. After a pause she lowers her arms, slowly, haltingly. She turns away.

I sigh, and rotate the shiny thing in my hands. It’s got two clear rectangular pieces, joined in the middle with long thin bits like insect legs on each side. The rectangles are clear, I can see through them. One has spiderweb cracks. But they feel solid? Weird. I bring the item closer to my face (everything is still blurry) to try to see what it is. To my surprise, the world beyond the rectangles is sharply in focus. I can see the scales on Friend’s arms, the pyramid lines of her shedding scutes. This is incredible! What strange magic is at work here?

I move it away and the details blur again. Closer, sharper. I can use this. I turn it and balance it, trying again and again so at last the insect arms hug the sides of my head and hold it there. I can see now! The cracks on one side form a haze in my vision, but the world beyond is clear as water.

I nudge Friend again and she turns to look, smiles, then breaks out giggling. I can’t help but laugh with her, her joy is infectious! We lie there gasping for breath between giggles for what feels like an eternity, then:

A noise. We fall silent. Danger?

The cold surfaces at our side are suddenly, suffocatingly, close. The shadows are longer now. Darker.

More noises. They draw closer. I tuck as far into my shell as I can, which isn’t far at all anymore. My legs are too long, my neck is too long. Friend huddles behind me. I cover my eyes.

Words begin to take shape (why can I understand?). “No… telling you, I saw… this way!”

“…crazy, that’s not possible! You’re pulling my leg.”

“You doubt me? Scoff!”

“Alright alright, IF we can find this new mutant you SUPPOSEDLY saw, I’ll-”

“Shh! The tracks end here.”

I couldn’t look. My body is shaking. Behind me, Friend quietly sobs.

An eternity goes by. Or just a few seconds, maybe. The owner of the first voice, with lighter footsteps and a nearly imperceptible whirring, draws closer. The second hangs back, I can hear him breathing.

The light is nearly gone now.

Between my fingers, I see a faint glow. I lower my hands and begin to stretch my neck out to see better.

“AHA!” A creature with glowing eyes leaps into view. I cry out, jolt backward. He is pointing something at me, a long stick with glowing patterns and a sharp end.

We freeze. My heart pounds. It’s deafening.

I stare at him. He looks like me. Not a human, not a Bad Man, but he moves like one, stands on two feet. Turtle? Human? An unknown third? His eyes glow vibrant colours, one blue, one red. He has strips of purple material wrapped around parts of his body, and his shell… his shell…?

He moves suddenly. A hand (three digits, like mine!) comes up and he flips the red-blue eyes, no, something else? to the top of his head. His real eyes stare back at me intensely, barely blinking.

“…huh. This is new.” The silence is broken. “Leo, come take a look at this guy.”

The second voice, Leo, leans into view. This one looks a lot like the first, but he is wearing river blue, and holds a long shiny blade across his shoulders. His shell is like mine. No artificial parts, not like the first.

“Whoa, look, he’s just like us!” He leans in closer, shoving the first voice aside. “Hey dude, what’s your name? Can I call you four-eyes?”

I blink. Leo turns to the first voice and whispers, “Can he even understand us, Donnie?” then turns back to me and says loudly, “Can. You. Understand. Me?”

Slowly, I nod.

Friend shifts behind me, and I jump to hold her back. Too late. She leans under my arm and squeaks inquisitively.

Leo and the first voice - Donnie - leap backwards. “Haa,” Leo shouts, “There’s two of them!” He flashes his weapon toward us. Before I even register this, I’ve swung around and wrapped my arms across Friend’s shell. I curl over her protectively. My body is armour. I’ll protect you.

She chirps indignantly, as if to say Hey, what gives?

“Jeez, Leo, you scared him! Put that thing away,” Donnie grumbles. Then to us he says, “You’re alright. We don’t want to hurt you.” When I turn my head tentatively, I see him looking at me. Compassion shines in his eyes, a steady hand outstretched.

I take it.

He hauls me up. I find myself balancing on two feet, like Donnie. I know this is wrong, I’m a turtle, I have four legs and a head and a bony shell and that’s all I am. But it feels… right. The ground seems to sway, like an unsteady log in the river. But I stand.

Friend stands with the help of Leo. I realize with a start that she’s small. She’s so, so small. I’m taller than Friend and Leo and Donnie, thinner, but unsteady on my feet. I take a wobbly step and the ground swarms up, but Donnie’s arm holds me.

“Okay,” he says, “Taking it slow.”

We walk.

The journey through this sky-high human warren takes forever. We twist and turn, sticking to the shadows. Monolithic structures loom around us. I’m the tallest here and yet I feel so small. Nothing back home compares to this. It’s so… lifeless.

Donnie stops abruptly. “I’m sorry,” he says, “but I don’t trust you. Should have done this from the start. Also, those are disgusting, I have an old pair somewhere that you can have instead.” He pulls the Shiny Thing from my face (everything is blurry again) and slips something soft over my eyes. I can’t see! I freeze. My heart pounds.

“Calm down, you’re not in any danger.” Leo says from behind. “Donnie doesn’t trust you. But you can’t even talk! I don’t think you’re dangerous.”

I feel that this last jab is directed more at Donnie than me.

“Can’t be too careful, Leo.”

Leo groans dramatically. I’m tugged forward. We continue. Friend’s footsteps slap slap slap behind me as Leo guides her. She’s so tired. I can hear her breath rasping.

“We’re nearly there, kid. Mikey’s got some hot pizza waiting for us, it’s gonna be sweet!”

Mikey. There’s a third. What will this one be like?

Donnie tugs me to a stop. He releases my arm. “Wait here for a sec.” A grating noise rattles up from below my feet. He yells out, “MIKEY, READY THE CUSHION.” A moment later, a reply echoes up from below.

I’m pushed forward. I stumble. Fall. Down, down, further down, it never ends, and I’m screaming the whole way, until WHOOMPH.