A Portable House

When Iona woke up, he was shocked to find himself outside of the tree hole.

He knew he was a deep sleeper, but he didn't know that he also sleep walk.

But this speculation was crossed out in his mind the second he realized his body was covered with some kind of...mucus?

Just looking at this thick and sticky mucus, Iona couldn't help shivering from disgust.

Iona's face frowned, he didn't know what this thing was, and he didn't really want to guess.

He didn't want to think that he was swallowed alive and was almost digested last night while he was sleeping, then fortunately got spat out, and so explained why he was covered with a lot of saliva...

Ahhh!! Fuck!

With a very active imagination, his brain almost re-created the scene last night. Except for the creature, who attempted to eat him, Iona could almost imagine his situation last night!

Disgust with a hint of fear intertwined in his eyes, at the same time, a bubble of happiness floated out of him.

If he guesses right then, doesn't that mean that he's not edible?

A creature much larger than him attempted to eat him, but he was thrown up.

Speaking of which, Iona has an apple green skin, with his shiny emerald green turtle shell, his turtle body was really inauspicious in the wild. If he's a frog he will be classified as a poisonous frog because of how light his color is.

Unlike the other baby turtles, which had moss green or dark green with a hint of brown color that can help them blend with their surroundings, the shades of green Iona has, almost looked like a light bulb in the forest.

The pattern of his turtle shell was also very glaring, the scales on them were the shiny type. Perhaps his shell shines when the moonlight hits it, attracting reptiles like snakes or something.

Actually, Iona guessed it was a snake who tried to eat him last night. Snakes are only the creatures he knew that don't chew their food.

If Iona was eaten by other creatures beside snakes, then maybe he'd be in pieces right now.

When Iona went to the sea for the first time, those little fishes immediately went to him curiously, it was because of his shiny turtle shell.

They were attracted by his shell that seemed to be carved out from jade.

Every time the sunlight that penetrated the water hits his shell, they will sparkle, and fishes just can't help but swim around him.

Later, Iona used this advantage to play with many fishes, like Nemo and Dory.

In the middle he realized that his action seemed somewhat predatory.

Fish are sensitive to light, and deep sea anglerfish used light to lure its prey towards it.

Iona felt like his shell was also designed like this, pity Iona didn't want to eat those types of fishes.

Nevertheless, his shiny shell only works on water, when put in land, Iona would attract different kinds of predator instead.

But one thing Iona has to be thankful for last night was that he didn't wake up, even with all those movement.

Iona hated pain. His flippers were already in pain for crawling on a rough road all day yesterday, and he already felt like giving up.

So Iona prefers, if he's going to be eaten, eat him when he's sleeping.

He's a deep sleeper. In his previous life, he almost died because of it.

It was summer, it was so hot, he was like a pancake spread over on a hot pan. It wasn't that unbearable, but it was still super hot.

It was summer vacation in his elementary school. After eating lunch, he went to read in his room and fell asleep in the middle. While he was asleep, the house went on fire.

He can't remember the cause of the fire anymore, but it seemed to be related to something overheated and it just burst into flames.

Iona was the only one at home back then, his siblings were outside playing with other children, his father was at work, while his mother was also outside gossiping with others while keeping eye on her two children, so for a while no one noticed the fire going inside the house, until it went bigger and bigger.

Iona didn't know anything and was still sleeping.

Fortunately, his mother didn't forget about him.

It was also because of this accident that Iona became a mommy's boy. He really admired his mother.

After realizing that their house was on fire, and knowing that the middle child was still inside of the house, without any hesitation, his mother became superman.

She quickly run inside the burning house. Iona's heart problem was actually inherited from her, she has a weak heart and lungs, but she still went inside to save her missing son.

Both mother and son were confined to the hospital after that. Iona almost died from suffocation and carbon monoxide. While his mother has second degree burns in her arms, and her lungs almost collapse due to lack of oxygen and carbon monoxide.

Iona woke up in the hospital after that, and only after his older sister told him what happened did he know that he almost died in the fire and his mother risked her life to save him. When he saw his mother's wounds, Iona cried very hard and almost had a heart attack that day. His father was also devastated and very frustrated, he was broken-hearted not because the house was burned down, but because he wasn't there to protect his wife and children.

After the house was built from the ground-up again, his father, who had a high position in the company at that time, applied to work from home from then on.

He really missed his family.

Iona can't help thinking about that time, his father was playing PS5, while his mother was browsing FB beside him, and he was reading CN web novels behind the couch, drinking milk tea. Meanwhile his older sister was at the garden, changing her clothes hundreds of times doing tiktok dance, and his younger brother tinkering with a bunch of electronics in the garage.

Missed those carefree days.

As he went down the memory lane, Iona ate a stem of jelly plant for breakfast.

He was in a good mood. Although he almost died being eaten last night, Iona, instead grew more courageous because of it.

His turtle shell seemed more sturdy than he thought.

He really didn't expect the situation last night. Thus using last night as reference, Iona said to himself: In a face of danger, just hide in your shell!

Thinking about his turtle shell, Iona really thought this was a good move. After all, his turtle shell has one door and four windows, like a box turtle, he could retract all his body parts inside and be tightly closed inside his turtle shell, it's really a portable house.

With this in mind, continue his journey in search of freshwater resources.

After a night of sleep, Iona felt like his flippers were all healed.

The healing ability of this turtle is really amazing.

Iona moved his body, cautiously crawling on the ground, but his happy mood couldn't be concealed, and was leaking out from the way he crawled.

Yesterday, he looked like someone who was moving bricks with his shoulder. With "tired to death" written on his forehead, he dragged his body to his destination.

Contrary, his speed seemed much faster than before, he's like a turtle running for food in front of him.

Iona even had time to wonder how the "as slow as a turtle" idiom came to be. It's more believable if its "as slow as a snail".

Then he thought about the story of the Rabbit and the Turtle. Turtles were always depicted as slow moving in every story, he just doesn't understand why. In fact turtles are not that slow, they're a fast swimmer, and they can walk and run too.

Iona has many thoughts in his head, but soon, he doesn't have such luxury to think anymore.

The forest is really beautiful, the kind described in fairytales inhabited by elves and fairies, but Iona's eyes seemed to have been equipped by some kind of filter.

His good mood dissipated like a cloud of smoke, his smile slowly disappeared, and his speed also slowed down.

Despite the sunlight squeezing in from between the leaves and branches, Iona's little head kept looking back and forth, left and right, watching out for any signs of something lurking in the dark.

Inside the forest was shrouded with shadows, in addition to the sounds of insects everywhere, there were also strange noises and rustling sounds somewhere, and every time Iona captured those sounds, he would hide in his shell, like a startled mouse.

Like this, Iona moved slowly, enduring his fear step by step and continued with trepidation. He always felt that some kind of creature will just appear from those bushes out of nowhere.

Iona didn't know how long he had been crawling. When he feels tired, he will go into his shell, pretending to be a normal stone. Sometimes, while resting, Iona will poke his head and bite one leaf of jelly plant from time to time.

Actually, Iona doesn't know where he was going to, he was just moving somewhere based on instinct.

He smelled the freshwater on the beach before, but the moment he entered the forest, the scent of freshwater was everywhere. So he has to rely on instinct to go there.

Although Iona's human soul hindered his turtle self, his turtle instincts are still there. Turtles have the ability to detect water, they have specialized sensory receptors in their skin and mouth that can detect changes in water pressure and detect water.

The soil in the direction Iona was going has more moisture, and Iona felt thirstier as he felt the water getting closer. Jelly plants contain a lot of water, but soaking in the water itself was still different from eating food with a lot of water.