The gentlest beam of sunlight hit Koalas’s nose. She crinkled it, and sighed satisfiedly. She rubbed her left ear. She rubbed her right ear. “Isn’t it just gorgeous here?”, she asked Turtle. Turtle frowned ever so slightly, so as not to offend Koala. “I guess”, he said, “I’m feeling a little dried out.”
Koala paused and pondered. “I understand. You need to be in the water, don’t you, Turtle?”
“It is a warm day, and the insides of my shells are sweaty, and the outside is very dry. I know just the spot where we could go.”
///
Turtle flapped his flippers excitedly, splashing water all around. He giggled as the water tickled his carapace. “I told you. It’s great here, isn’t it?” Koala scratched her nose, embarassed at her own feelings. “I suppose. But isn’t it a little wet?”
Turtle stopped flapping his flippers and looked at Koala. “This is not your element, is it?”
“My fur is wet and heavy, and the space between my toes feels weird in the water. I can’t swim very well.”
They paused and pondered again. “What should we do?”
///
The clouds drifted by. Koala pointed upwards. “See this one? It looks like a tiny turtle!” She laid on her backs, all the limbs splayed out as far as her stubby figure allowed. Turtle snorted. He laid on his back, too, floating in shallow waters, and sometimes a little water entered his nose. To him that felt nice. “You know, I was thinking it looked like a Koala.” And so each of them saw what they wanted to see.
As Turtle drifted closer to the shore, he stretched out a flipper and laid it into Koala’s paw, anchoring himself to her. “This is nice.”
Koala closed her eyes, felt the grass on her back, and her Turtle’s scaly, wet flippers in her leathery paw. “Yes. Yes, it is.”