Turtle ran his flippers through the water. He had flopped onto a big stone such that only his flippers were submerged, and his carapace remained dry—not that he minded getting wet.
He craned his neck to look up at the sky. “Just a bit longer”, he thought. He looked around. The wind was kissing the branches of the surrounding trees gently, making them sway gently, love-drunk.
He sighed. “I’m so impatient”, he said to himself and slipped back into the water, swimming downstream for a long while, long enough for it to almost feel like work.
When his head came up for air again, the scenery had changed completely. Not only did the trees make way for a large clearing, the air was filled with tiny, high-pitched voices. Little animals of all shapes and sizes, all colors and species romped around, laughing, crying, fighting, cuddling, making noise.
As Turtle emerged from the stream, one of the animals turned. A small green, gray, furry, scaly, incredibly adorable body wobbled and a face lit up in the biggest smile it could produce. “Hawou”, she exlcaimed, waving so hard she almost fell over.
“Hello, girl”, Turtle said as he walked over until their noses touched.
Tuala immediately climbed onto his back and waved at everyone as they turned to the stream again. “Hold on tight!”, said Turtle as he pushed himself gently into the stream, not quite submerged all the way this time.
Tuala sang all the way home, pointing at nothing in particular. At home, Koala and the other Tuala waited for them, and they would all tell each other about the day they had had.