Turtles

I found myself back on the bed where I woke up the first time.

This time I remained silent and tried to Look at my surroundings. I had a feeling my dreams were connected to that old woman who always seemed to have a watch over me, since I had been stranded.

At least this forsaken piece of land was indeed inhabited. But why did they tie me to this bed?

The room I was in, was part of a rather elaborate house, that had been build out of something like bamboo. This could mean only a few things. Either the people here didn’t have access to lots of stone, or there was just no need to build more sturdy houses than that. I carefully turned my head and tried to make the impression that I was sleeping, as I heard people approaching.

“Did he wake up already?”

“Once. But his Lo was still in too much of a disorder. I sent him back to his own mind.”

“What has happened to him?”

“I can’t tell. I only know that I've never seen a Lo in such a state.”

“Should we really keep him here?”

“What do you propose? Throwing him into the ocean? I wont allow such thoughts. He is here now and here he will stay.”

“Understood. I’m just asking if this is a good idea. We can’t risk bringing in unknown diseases.”

“As far as I can tell, he is completely healthy. Physically at least.”

They stopped their talk as soon as they reached the door.

The woman opened it carefully as to not wake me up. I kept pretending to be asleep.

Through my slightly opened eyes I could see the people talking about me. First there was an old woman, likely about 70 to 80 years old. She seemed to give off an aura of calmness and wisdom. Regarding the talks about diseases she might be a doctor, which then would likely make this here not the most horrible prison one could think off, with unlocked doors and nothing but trust in four ropes, but a hospital. Maybe my situation wasn’t so bad after all.

The second person was a guy twice the presumed doctor’s size. He wore something that looked like a mixture of an oversized t-shirt and a poncho. The different patterns on it indicated, that the strange form of the clothes wasn’t necessary, but rather a choice of design.

He seemed to be more wary regarding me, but the wrinkles on his forehead told me that this was kind of his task here.

What now? Should I continue to pretend to be asleep or would I manage to give a convincing impression of waking up? The Alternative was lying around for an unknown amount of time without food or water, since they would assume I was really asleep.

“How is his Lo by now?”, asked the man.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”, she replied.

Had I been caught? Or was this Lo thing reacting differently depending on if you were awake or not? There would be time for answers later on. For now I decided to act like I just woke up. My acting was likely a little too much to seem natural. I turned my head so I was facing the ceiling again and opened my eyes. I even tried to wipe with my hand through my face, which of course was stopped by the ropes around my wrists, which I pretended to notice only now.

I looked around looked at the people standing a few steps away from my bed and then at the ropes again.

“What?”, I asked as I started to tear on the ropes, like I only now had realized that the ropes around my wrists were meant to hold me down on the bed.

“Don’t worry. Lay down and don’t worry.”, the woman said. Her second “don’t worry” was far calmer than the first. The first had been a reaction to me realizing I was trapped. It had been hasty, as if to break my panic with one sudden word. The second had been spoken in the way and mood she wished for in myself.

“Where am I?”, I asked.

“You are in safety. Don’t worry.”, she replied.

“That is yet to be decided.”, added the man grumpily.

We both won’t be friends as it seems., I thought to myself and stopped my escape attempts with one last pull on the ropes.

“Why am I tied to this bed?”

“Just for control reasons. As soon as we are sure your presence won’t cause us any trouble, you are free to go wherever you want.”

I laughed silently.

“Oh! I’m the biggest troublemaker of them all.”

“I told you!”, said the man.

“Did you leave your brain at the beach? Ever heard of sarcasm?”, she scolded him.

The man mumbled something I couldn’t hear and looked away from her.

“What is your prognosis? Does my body contain any deadly bacteria, trying to kill you all?”, I asked.

The whole situation annoyed me. I had just escaped death and now I was caught and tied to a bed. Just when I again thought about starting to tear on my ties, the earth started to shake.

Unfortunately for me, the bed wasn’t really standing safely as I found out. While I had shifted my weight towards one end of the bed, the earthquake had been forceful enough to make the bed fall over. This in turn meant for me, that I fell flat on my face and the bed on top of me.

The cupboards on the wall didn’t move. Their doors also didn’t open. They had been tightly packed and locked.

“Ouch.”, I said, not because the impact had been so painful, but rather to acknowledge that this had hurt a little and there was nothing I could do to free me from this predicament.

“Come on! Help me take the bed off him.”, the old woman commanded. She had run to me and tried to lift the bed off me. The bed's weight wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I was still attached to it.

“What about keeping our distance to him?”

“We can’t let him lay on the floor all day long.”, replied the woman.

“It’s his fault! It takes a lot to make these beds fall over!”, protested the man but then accepted, that he wont have a choice but to help me.

They tried to lift the bed and me at the same time, but then agreed, that it made things unnecessarily hard. They untied me and then placed the bed in it’s old place. I could have used the time for escaping, but since this was an island, there were likely not too many hiding spaces where one could lead a whole life without getting caught. Another life in solitude didn’t sound like something I wanted anymore. I already had this once.

“What was this?”, I asked. The question felt stupid to me, since it obviously had been an earthquake, but the answer took me by surprise.

“Seems like Oomisi got a little nervous for a moment.”, stated the woman.

“O-Oomisi?”, I asked, not sure if I had heard her correctly.

“Let’s show him.”

“But the quarantine!”, protested the man another time.

“Well, we all have it now, if he had a disease to begin with.”

As she spoke these words, she smirked and blinked at me.

The man seemed unhappy but eventually agreed.

They guided me outdoors and towards a mountain, that seemed to be the highest point of the island. The slope guided from the top of the mountain directly towards a small beach that represented the border between the land and the endless sea.

It took quite a while and even more forces to reach the top of the mountain, but the view across the whole island was worth the effort.

I took a careful look around, or at least tried to, because my gaze fell on a giant reptilian head.

“W-What….?”, I started but couldn’t find the words to even formulate a question.

“Turtles.”, said the man, who seemed to find some amusement in my disbelief.