The Shy Neighbor

Iona stretched out his neck and opened his mouth. He felt like this action was too stupid, but this stupid action was really working.

He sensed the moisture in the air and smelled the freshwater closer than ever and felt excited.

The travel worn Iona looked around, and tried to feel if there was any danger nearby, fortunately there was none.

Iona arrived in front of a bush, and he directly dived through it, the leaves parted, revealing a slow flowing stream in front.

He immediately crawled towards the water and soaked in the water, feeling refreshed than ever.

The stream wasn't that deep, when Iona came in, the water went till half of his turtle shell. He then submerged his head, and just let his whole body feel the water.

The water in the stream was flowing slowly, Iona saw some small fishes in the water, although some stayed in the stream, he saw the majority swimming with the flow, going somewhere.

Iona guessed that there's a waterfall up ahead and planned to check it out later.

For now, Iona rested, and after a while, he ate all the remaining jelly plants around his neck. He will go find food later.

He stayed by the shore for a while, before he decided to swim around.

Iona followed the flow of the water along the stream and reached a waterfall. Iona came out of the water, and crawled on the ground to avoid being swept by the water, then he went closer to the edge to take a look.

Down the fall, there was a huge lake surrounded by trees. If looking at it from the sky, in the middle of the island forest, a near circular lake could be seen. It has a striking blue color, like a clear round mirror reflecting the sky and the trees surrounding it.

When Iona saw it, he let out a "wow", it was beautiful.

Iona wanted to go and check it out, maybe he could see some local fishes there, fishes that look edible. He had been eating nothing but jelly plants since he came to this world, although he did find some other edible plants aside from jelly plants, they were still vegetables.

Stretching out his neck, Iona looked around to find his way down. He was at the edge of the cliff at least four meters down, he had no way of going down except to jump from where he was.

Thinking this, Iona immediately went back to the water. After swimming near the waterfall, Iona hid inside his shell and let the water push him down the waterfall.

Iona could feel his turtle shell moving, until he felt the sudden weightlessness. Not even a second later, a huge splashed sound accompanied by the sound of the water.

The turtle shell fell and was pushed down by the force of the water deep into the lake. Soon, after the turtle shell touched the bottom of the lake, it floated up again.

Iona learned this skill when he was mastering the art of turtle swimming in the ocean before. When he realized that he doesn't breathe the same as humans do, and that he might be breathing through his butt, Iona accepted it with an open heart.

Then he realized another thing, he still had a nose. In addition to the skill set of identifying things through his nose, Iona also discovered that everytime he floated up to the surface of the water, he would open his mouth a bit, then draw in water through his nose, and quickly let it out from his mouth. And just like that he would float in the water.

He did it instinctively before, later he learned how to do it consciously.

Just swimming in the sea, looking for food and sightseeing weren't enough to pass time. Iona felt bored all the time, lamenting about the fact that he can't use the internet, he doesn't have a cell phone or that he can't read books anymore.

He felt like he would die from boredom.

Iona poked his head out of his turtle shell, then looked around, then he looked down, and immediately he saw little fishes swimming in groups.

Iona stayed still, and when that group of little fishes came to him out of curiosity, Iona extended his neck and opened his mouth, and swiftly attacked like a snake.

He didn't have a psychological barrier eating fish raw, his mother liked japanese food a lot, he ate sashimi and sushi a lot.

The fish in the sea have beautiful fins and colorful scales, and Iona felt bad eating them. But the fishes here are different, they look small and the biggest Iona has seen was the size of his head, and they looked like the local fishes in the market, very ordinary looking fish.

Finally, Iona ate his fish and was very happy. He went fishing for a while, and tried eating the water plants he saw by the side of the lake; some were bitter, others were sweet. Realizing that he could also eat these plants, Iona took a bite of the plants he passed by while chasing fish.

"Burp." Already satiated, Iona happily rested as he stayed afloat in the water. He closed his eyes, and felt the refreshing cool water filling every pores in his skin.

After eating his fill and resting, Iona dived down the lake, and saw a pile of rocks in the bottom, and went to arrange it a bit, making a temporary rock cave.

The skies were still brightly lit outside, but Iona already felt exhausted, so he went inside his makeshift rock cave and went to sleep.

Iona lived in this rock cave for a few days. And for a few days, Iona felt Buddhist like never before.

In his previous life, he also had a monotonous life; waking up, eating while reading, editing videos, shooting videos, then reading and eating, then sleeping, but he never felt bored. Sometimes he even felt like time happened so fast, he could never do so much in a day.

Iona looked at the sky with dead fish eyes, he was so bored, he felt like he'd die out of boredom.

It's been almost a week since he was reincarnated, and for a few days, he's been living at the bottom of the lake. His range of motion just stayed around the surface of the lake, up to the makeshift cave he made at the bottom.

He did not dare explore the entire bottom of the cave, since he realized that there might be an underground river underneath this lake.

It was just a speculation, but on his second day at this lake, Iona wanted to explore his teritorry, and discover an unusual water flow at the bottom leading somewhere. He followed it, and he reached a tunnel on the lake wall.

The tunnel was very big, dark and eerie, it looked like a huge open mouth that was sucking in water. Fortunately, the waterflow was very slow and Iona was never sucked in, but Iona never went there again for fear of something coming out of it, or being sucked in it.

Moreover, for the few nights he slept in his makeshift rock cave, he always felt as if something was staring at him. This feeling of being watched just made Iona feel restless.

He thought that maybe he had a "shy" neighbor, not really used to having a new tenant in the lake. Now this "shy" neighbor was constantly watching this newcomer.

Until eventually, Iona finally met his "shy" neighbor.

Today, as Iona was looking at the sky, feeling bored than ever, a dark shadow suddenly appeared from the bottom of the lake.

Iona was still having a moment at the surface, spending his time in a daze.

Except for the birds that came flying past the lake in the sky, he never saw a second animal by the lake.

He thought that the lake should be infested with a bunch of animals. They will come here to drink water or bath themselves, but nothing.

Not a single shadow of other animals could be seen.

It was weird, but Iona felt overjoyed about it. He felt like this lake was the safest place ever, and was already planning how he could spend the rest of his turtle life here.

Little did he know, the reason why no animals came here like he thought they would, was because the whole lake was already claimed as someone else's territory.

Now that this lake has welcomed a newcomer who knew nothing of it, the owner of the lake finally came to say hello after observing the newcomer for a few nights.

The dark shadow that suddenly appeared on the lake became larger. From a small hazy black dot, it's like a black ink that slowly spreads through the lake, dyeing the lake black.

At first Iona didn't notice anything, then his heart started skipping a beat, but his tail twitched, and he started to feel restless.

Soon that familiar feeling of being watched came again.

Iona looked left and right, but didn't see anything, then he looked down as if he sensed something wasn't quite right, and saw, at some point, the water had become darker than before.

Before Iona could even think of any reason for this, a huge fish suddenly emerged from the bottom of the lake.

Huge wall of water came up, splashes of water flew in the air, and a huge wave swept Iona by the shore.

When Iona regained his senses again, he was a giant catfish swimming towards him at a fast speed.

Without any hesitation, Iona fled the scene with his tail tucked inside his shell.