Disclaimer: Dash, Kiri, Sam and Cory are, once again, my own creations, and hopefully won't offend anyone's sensibilities. I still don't know anything about turtles ( and yes they're still gay ), I just have fun playing with them… for some reason Dash won't leave me alone. *grins* This is a sequel to my story "Ignorance is Bliss", and things probably won't make much sense if you haven't read that one first.
No particular warnings with this one either, I think, as it is still all for fun and perhaps a little for the sake of romance, turtle or otherwise, but there you have it. If the idea of gay turtles or people aren't quite your thing, you probably shouldn't be reading this. Honest.
Also, I hadn't really intended to write a sequel to Ignorance is Bliss, but a conversation with AmberDragon about a Dash-inspired dream of hers got me going… and here is the result, further bits and pieces in the lives of Dash, Kiri and their humans. And, I really must say this, if a "Super Beautiful World-Changing Magical Girl Pretty Cheerleader" comes along to to threaten you with paper-deprivation until you write the fanfics she wants, just do it - those pom-poms are scary! ;)
Feedback would, as always, be greatly appreciated at mailto:rosmari.karlssonfaltin@telia.com?subject=It's ATurtle Life .
It's A Turtle Life
by Carola "Ryűchan" Eriksson
Dash was fairly sure that she had the absolutely perfect life, at least it seemed perfect for small fluorescent green turtles with abundance of energy, a tendency towards loops and flips when she got exited, and some pretty much uncontrollable violent tendencies where males were concerned. After all, she had her beautiful Kiri, a pretty neat home, and a very nice human who fed them all the tasty treats they could eat.
Dash was rather proud that they had trained their human, Sam, so well.
Anyway, the only thing that had been bothering the two turtles for a while was the other human, Cory, and her many failed attempts at engaging Sam in some human mating rituals, but with some help from Dash and Kiri, their two humans had at long last gotten into a nice, long head nuzzle. The turtles were very pleased with themselves.
So everything was perfect. Of course, Sam was behaving rather oddly after that nuzzle thing, especially right before Cory would come over. Dash would observe how Sam rushed about the apartment fussing with things, turning lights on and off, and spending an awful long amount of time in front of that strange thing on the wall that made it look like there was two Kiri when Cory had shown it to the turtles.
Dash had nearly fallen down on her shell at the sight of two Kiri, and the humans had been very amused.
Yes, the strange flat thing was amusing, but Sam was spending an awful lot of time in front of it lately. Usually she talked to herself while doing so, as well. And it involved changing clothes a lot, too, Dash noticed. Once Cory had arrived, the two humans always spent quite some time just standing there, changing colour slightly, and smiling, before doing something more understandable, like eating. Or doing that thing in Sam's couch that involved that strange big thing in the corner, the one that changed colours all the time and made a big noise. Kiri said the humans called it 'a movie', and Dash supposed she was right about that. After all, Dash thought, Kiri was pretty smart, so she probably knew a lot of those odd human things.
Cory would bring treats for Dash and Kiri as well, and once in a while Cory would whisper a thank you to Dash for her help. Dash would puff herself up in self-importance, agreeing that it was her help that had made it possible for Cory to tell Sam how she felt, and that treats was a nice way of showing how grateful Cory was. Kiri just laughed at her for it, though, which made Dash sulk just a little… before Kiri cheered her up with a nuzzle or two.
After a few weeks of this, Cory stayed over for the first time in Sam's bedroom. Cory had stayed overnight many times before, so the turtles didn't think much of it, but before then Cory had always slept on the couch next to their tank. Not so this time.
The turtles didn't pay much attention as the two humans spent their evening face-nuzzling on the couch, so they didn't really know when Sam and Cory had gone into the other room. But then the noises started, and Dash got very agitated. Someone was hurting her human!
Dash was determinedly scrabbling for a way to climb out of the tank, while Kiri was watching and flinching every time a particularly loud cry came from the other room. Then the humans started calling out for one another, very very loudly, and Dash stopped trying to scale the glass walls of the tank. Now, Dash was fully aware that humans didn't hear very well, but surely their two humans would hear one another if they were in the same room without shouting like that? They had never needed to shout like that before.
The noises continued for quite a while, then the humans grew quiet. Dash and Kiri huddled together, waiting to see what kind of beast had made their humans shout like that, and whether or not it was going to come for them now. After some time the bedroom door opened, and Cory came out. Both turtles were greatly relieved to see at least one of their humans, and therefore intently watched as Cory padded over to the kitchen. They listened as Cory poured a glass of water just outside of their line of sight, then she padded over to them as she headed back towards the bedroom.
"Hi girls." Cory was looking rather silly grinning like that, Dash thought as the human bent over the tank. Dash also noticed that Cory had forgotten to wear any of those clothes things that humans wore as their shells, and decided that Cory looked much to vulnerable without her clothes shell on her. She was trying to convince the yellow-haired human to put her shell back on in case the beast came back when Cory lifted her and Kiri up in one hand.
"Guess what?" Cory whispered to them. Dash and Kiri stared at her intently, thinking Cory was going to tell them about the beast. "She said it! She said she loves me!" Cory practically bounced as she said it, then impulsively kissed the tiny heads of both the small turtles in her hand before gently putting them back in the tank. "Sam loves me!"
Well duh, Dash thought, idly noticing that Cory smelled even more of Sam than she usually did, of course Sam loved Cory. If Dash hadn't thought Sam loved Cory in the first place, why then Dash wouldn't have permitted Cory to try and engage Sam in mating behavior to start with. No, Dash was a turtle who took the job of looking after her human rather seriously, so she would at the very least have bitten Cory in the nose to show her displeasure if that had been the case. Humans really were clueless.
Kiri thought Cory looked very cute bouncing in place like that while grinning and making those funny little happy sounds in her throat, actually she reminded Kiri a little of Dash. Kiri was just about to ask Cory about the beast and what had happened to Sam, when a pair of dark arms wrapped around Cory from behind.
"Yes goofy, your Sam loves you." Sam purred and kissed Cory's shoulder, her voice sounding a lot deeper than usual. "Couldn't you wait to tell your little buddies about your conquest until the morning?" She teased gently, making Cory actually look rather guilty despite her grin.
"I was just getting water for you… see?" Cory sheepishly waved the all but forgotten glass in her hand.
"Riiight." Sam kissed Cory. "Mmmm. Come back to bed, baby." Sam took Cory by the hand and led her back towards the bedroom, with Cory grinning even bigger than before and bouncing all the way until the door closed behind them.
Dash was wondering why humans looked so defenceless without their shells when the noises started up again. Luckily, by that time Kiri had figured it all out and explained to Dash why the humans were making such noise, even though neither turtle could quite figure out why human mating rituals were that loud. It took the turtles a couple of nights to get used to things, but after that they barely twitched in their sleep when their humans got noisy again.
Several weeks passed this way, Cory staying overnight for most of the time, but once in a while Sam and the turtles stayed at Cory's apartment for a few days instead. No incidents like last time they had stayed in Cory's apartment occurred, although it was a bit cumbersome for the turtles since Cory didn't have a nice big tank for them. Even so, the visits were quite fun for all involved.
They did discover, though, that sound carried a lot further between apartments where Cory lived, and that Cory's neighbours were not particularly happy to hear them carry on all night. Deeply embarrassed when confronted with said neighbours, Sam and Cory apologized - and Dash and Kiri never got to go with Sam to stay at Cory's apartment again.
Some time after that incident Dash and Kiri watched as Cory shot up from a quiet conversation with Sam, and started jumping around in Sam's livingroom. Finally she bounced her way over to the tank.
"I'm moving in!" Cory told them happily. "Sam told me I can move in! We'll be living together!"
Cory then bounced back to her laughing lover and proceeded to pull her down in the couch for some serious nuzzling. The turtles gave them a little flipper applause for this brilliant idea, and two days later some of Cory and Sam's friends helped carry a whole lot of boxes and other big things into the apartment.
Cory had come to stay.
A year passed by and everyone, human or turtle, were quite happy together. Having Cory living with them wasn't that much different than before, except they sometimes had Cory's sister and nephew over for a visit, and the little human was very curious about the tank. Once, the little boy even manage to crawl into the tank itself, but landed fortunately enough on the sandy side and didn't hurt himself, even so it taught the humans a lesson about leaving three-year-olds out of their immediate line of sight for particularly long.
Dash was particularly proud of herself for bouncing on the food bowl and alerting Sam and Cory that something had happened. She also thought she should be praised for refraining to bite the small human when he had startled them so.
During their time together, the turtles got to come with Sam and Cory to a place called 'private pool', where the strange tank was so big that Sam and Cory could swim with Dash and Kiri in it. Dash felt sorry for her humans that they were so clumsy in the water, but she and Kiri still had a lot of fun swimming and playing with their humans. It was a long, fun but exhausting day, that ended with two turtles sleeping peacefully in their brand-new travel tank under a parasol while their humans were busy nuzzling and breaking a wooden recliner close by.
The turtles also got to come with Cory to the petshop while she worked, once in a while. When they were there, Cory kept them in their travel tank on top of the counter, and Dash had a lot of fun doing small loops and pirouettes for all the little humans who would stand around and watch them. The little humans always told their parents that they wanted a turtle just like Dash after that, and would run off to pick out one they liked in the big tanks. The human apparently named Boss said he had never thought that Dash would be good for his business, which Dash didn't really understand, but either way, she liked showing off to the little humans. She also discovered that if a big human would stand nearby and she brought her flippers together really fast, she could squirt them with water. This was much fun as well.
When Cory was on her break, and no-one saw her, she would take Kiri and Dash with her and show them the other animals in the pet shop. Cory knew well enough not to bring Dash anywere near any tanks holding male turtles, but she was surprised to find out that when she put Dash and Kiri near a tank with female turtles in it, it wasn't Dash who wanted to fight. Instead Kiri slapped her flippers angrily at the glass whenever one of the curious female turtles came to close to Dash.
Cory, and Sam once Cory told her, thought it was a quite hilarious display of turtle jealousy. Cory also told Dash and Kiri, strictly in confidence, that their 'mom', Sam, was the same way but would never admit it.
But eventually a year had gone by, and Dash and Kiri were going to stay with Cory's sister for a few days as their humans would go do something called 'anniversary'. Cory's sister had borrowed a tank to keep them in while Sam and Cory were away, and made sure her son wouldn't try to climb into it this time. Personally, Dash thought that it was the little human who made the days less boring there, although of course, as long as she had Kiri with her, Dash was quite happy.
Then one day Cory's sister ran out of the house while yelling at her son somewhere outside, and forgot to close the door behind her.
The neighbour's cat sneaked in, expecting to be fed or played with like usual, and spotted Dash splashing around in the tank. It didn't take long at all before the cat had pushed the glass covering on the tank a little to the side, enough to get one big, clawed paw into the water.
One swipe of the paw came very close to the frightened Kiri.
When Cory's sister came back into the house, drawn there by the hideous howling of a cat, she saw the big black cat running around in mad circles with a tiny green turtle attached to it's paw. Finally the cat managed to dislodge the relentless Dash, and fled to the top of a high bookshelf. Dash angrily paced the floor underneath, waiting for the hissing thing to come back down and fight, while she was spitting out little bits of its fur.
It took quite some time before Dash had been collected and returned to the tank and Kiri. Even longer before the humans managed to get the cat down from the shelf and look at its paw. Cory and Sam came by to pick Dash and Kiri up that very same evening, and the humans all stood around apologizing to one another. Cory's sister told them that she had decided that her son wouldn't get a turtle for his birthday after all, because he was just too young to see some of the things Dash and Kiri tended to do, and she hadn't intended to have to explain to him about babies until he was quite a bit older. Also, she said, it was rather embarrassing when she had company over, to have them stare at the strange pets.
Dash couldn't figure out why both her humans coloured at that, but Cory got nearly as red as Kiri's shell, and that just couldn't be good for a human.
Another couple of months passed by, and Dash and Kiri experienced something called Christmas. Dash and Kiri wasn't sure what a 'christmas' was, just that there was a lot of funny and glittering things put around the bottom of the tank that both turtles liked to look at, and that their humans gave them new things. There was a new plant and a new bottom-feeding fish in the tank, as well as a strange little thing with a pretty shell that Sam called 'snail'. Snail was a funny creature that would crawl up the walls of the tank so very, very slowly, and Dash liked to pick Snail up by the shell and swim around with him before putting him on another wall instead.
Dash and Kiri also got toys from their humans. They got a hard loop thingy that was quite nice to chew on, and a very funny ball that they played with a lot and Dash learned how to squirt into the air.
Their humans also gave one another gifts, and it just so happened that Dash and Kiri were both watching as Cory gave Sam a small box containing a tiny silvery loop with sparkling bits on it. Cory put it on Sam's finger and Sam started to cry, so Dash worried that the silvery thing might be painful to wear, and thought Cory should help Sam take it off. But then Sam threw herself on Cory, who for some strange reason had been kneeling in front of Sam, and hurled them both onto the floor, where face nuzzling soon became mating, and at which point two rather considerate turtles stopped watching. After all, staring at someone's intimate moments with that someone's partner is really, really rude, and humans tended to do that to Dash and Kiri much to often, so Dash and Kiri wanted to set a good example.
The turtles didn't really realize the significance of the event, but nearly two months later, their humans were in a flurry of activity that made even the usually so unshakable Dash feel a bit dizzy. Almost before they knew it, both turtles were sitting in this semi-shallow glass bowl with ribbons tied around their shells, while Sam and Cory were standing in front of the table, and a group of their friends were watching them.
Some things were said, both by Sam, Cory and some other human Dash had never seen before, but frankly Dash was much more interested in tasting the nice green ribbon Kiri was wearing. Then Dash was much more interested in Kiri… period.
A muted giggle went up around the room, but neither turtle payed any attention. Afterwards they got a carrot muffin with pretty icing on it, and a few days later Sam and Cory took Dash and Kiri with them for a long, long ride in the car. When the ride was over their destination turned out to be to a very nice room with a tank even bigger than the one at home, and the four of them stayed there for an entire week.
One day in autumn would come to change Dash's life.
One of Sam and Cory's neighbours came by and spoke to them while carrying a small box. The woman seemed distressed, and after a while Sam, then Cory, nodded and took the box from her. The woman left, after checking the box again, and looking even more distressed, leaving Sam and Cory looking just a bit bewildered.
After a while they brought the box over to the tank and held Dash and Kiri so they could look into it. Inside the box was four little turtlings, all scared and huddling together in a corner.
"Look girls, these are babies, allright?" Cory spoke suprisingly seriously to Dash and Kiri. "They're all alone 'cause their mom is sick and needs to go to a vet, far away from here, for a couple of days. They're probably scared and missing their mommy, so Sam and I want you to be nice to them, OK?"
Sam just rolled her eyes a little, then put Dash and Kiri back into the tank. Carefully Cory picked up the little turtlings and put them in the sand a bit away from Dash and Kiri, Sam and Cory both hovering over them as they did so, just in case Dash would do something violent.
The turtlings were scared and piled up together, two blues, one yellow and one orange, and stared at Kiri and Dash. Kiri moved over to the turtle pile and began nudging them a little, until the pile cracked and turned into four tiny turtles instead. They moved a little towards Kiri.
Dash completely withdrew into her shell, her eyes barely visible from under it's edge as she stared at the babies with huge eyes.
Kiri kept nudging them reassuringly, until they had all clustered around her on unsteady flippers, smelling her and deciding that she seemed safe. Dash continued to stare at them from inside her shell.
Cory and Sam watched in wonderment as the little turtlings, after spending some time being comforted by Kiri, all zeroed in on the hiding Dash started climbing on her. Soon enough the little ones felt enough at home to be running around virtually everywhere, with Kiri in pursuit as she obviously tried to keep an eye on her young guests, and Dash madly scrambling for some elusive safety, head still tucked into her shell, with at least two turtlings in tow. Every time the turtlings caught up to Dash she retreated completely into her shell, and the little ones seemed to enjoy this.
The humans eventually left for whatever human things they had to do, which Dash found terribly unfair as she was still being hunted by overly eager turtlings. Whether in the water or on the sand, the turtlings were everywhere.
Dash's respite came after Kiri had made all four turtlings go eat, as she started making a little nest for them. By the time she was finished, all the turtlings hade draped themselves over Dash and fallen asleep, and Dash didn't dare to move in case that might wake them up again. Thankfully Kiri managed to lift them one by one and put them in their little nest, and Dash plonked down on her shell in sheer exhaustion.
Three days continued this way, and while Dash was no longer afraid of the turtlings, it was exhausting even the normally so energetic Dash to keep up with four little turtles determined to turn the tank upside down.
Plants were pulled out of place. Fish were chased around until they got so exhausted they pretended to be dead, floating upside-down by the water's edge just to get away. Dash had to save Snail as one of the little blues buried him in the stones at the bottom of the tank. The bottom-feeding fish couldn't be found anywhere.
But the worst part was trying to keep the turtlings from getting themselves hurt when they played, which usually ended up with Dash instead getting hit in the head with the chewing loop thingy, or buried in pebbles, or snared in one of the plants. By the second day of this activity, when the little turtles all fell asleep draped over Dash again, Dash fell asleep too. Kiri seemed unaffected though.
On the fourth day Sam and Cory's neighbour came back to get the little turtles. With her she had the babies' mother, a big yellow turtle that was considerably older, and much larger, than both Dash and Kiri. They said goodbye to the turtlings, and afterwards Dash dropped on her shell where she stood, and decided she would go to sleep.
Kiri had other ideas, though, and nudged Dash with her into the mess that had used to be their favourite strawcovered nest for quite some time. Cory came by a while later, just as Kiri nuzzled Dash's head, turtle-whispered something to her, and then went to sleep.
Dash froze for a moment, then walked out towards Cory on very shaky flippers.
"What's the matter, buddy? Those kids wear you down?" Cory sounded amused as she stopped by the tank to watch the wobbling turtle. "Or maybe Kiri wore you down, hmm?"
Dash wobbled even more.
"Hey!" Cory was concerned now, and scooped Dash up in her hand to take a closer look. "What's the matter with you, are you sick or something?" Cory would swear she saw Dash's little turtle eyes swivel around in her head.
She, she, she… Dash tried to tell Cory something. She…
"Sam! Sam, come here, something's wrong with Dash!" Sam rounded the kitchen corner just in time to see Dash stand on her hind flippers in Cory's hand, and grab Cory with the front pair.
She said she wants babies! Dash exclaimed, coming face to eyeball with Cory. Human, do you know what that MEANS?!
"Erk." Cory said, startled.
Babies, human, HATCHLINGS! Dash cried, and tried to shake Cory's head with her flippers. TURTLINGS!
"Urf." Cory said, wideeyed, and Sam tried not to laugh as Dash shook Cory's cheek.
TURTLINGS! Dash drew nearer to stare right into Cory's eyeball. And, Great Hatcher in the Sky, eggies! EGGIES, human, EGGIES!
With that Dash's eyes promptly rolled back into her head, and she fainted in Cory's hand.
The humans examined Dash, worried that she might be ill, but found nothing wrong with her. They assumed that it was just that Dash was worn out from the babysitting after all, and tried to leave the turtles in peace as much as they could for the time being. The broken plants were replaced in the tank, new sand and straw put in, and after a while even the missing fish showed up from wherever he had been hiding. Everything seemed back to normal.
Except Dash would sometimes be eyeing Kiri a bit strangely, but this behaviour, too, disappeared soon enough, and things were as they used to be.
Imagine Sam's surprise then one morning almost two months later, when she stopped by the tank to give Dash and Kiri some vegetables, and found one very limp, very fainted off her flippers Dash next to a tired but pleased-looking Kiri… and two small turtleeggs.
Sam blinked. Then she blinked again. And turned on her heel to find her wife, still brushing her teeth in the bathroom, and drag her out to the tank.
"Do you see what I see?" Sam said to Cory.
Cory took the toothbrush out. "You have your eyes closed, so what are you…" Sam turned Cory's head towards the tank. "…talking ab-EGGS!"
The startled exclamation awoke Dash, who took one look at the eggs in question, then started running around along the walls of the tank, going eggieseggieseggieseggieseggiesEGGIES!
Sam snatched her up almost absently on the third pass.
"Can you explain that?" Sam asked Cory quietly, receiving a vigorously shaking head and a wide-eyed look from her wife. "I'm not imagining that, am I?" Again with the shaking.
"So…"
"So…" Cory agreed.
"So…" Sam added.
"So…" Cory looked at Dash, then at Sam. "Are we really sure she's supposed to be female?"
The two humans just looked at each other in silence, then carefully put Dash back in the tank next to Kiri. Then Cory went to get the phone, saying she would call the Boss human.
Dash carefully sidled closer to Kiri, while keeping the eggs in sight. Kiri nuzzled Dash as she got close enough, and after a while Dash forgot to nervously watch the eggies, her little tail going up and starting to wag happily, as she just enjoyed the nuzzling instead.
The humans left to call some other people, and were away for a while. Eventually they came back to the tank, and by then Kiri looked a lot less tired, and Dash a lot less nervous. In fact, Dash strutted around looking like her usual cocky self. She bounced on the food bowl until Cory picked her up, at which point Dash did a little strutting dance in Cory's hand.
Eggies. Dash crowed and strutted. E-G-G-I-E-S. Count 'em, not one but TWO eggies! Waving her front flippers at Cory. TWO eggies! One and two! Eggies! Who's da turtle, huh? Who's da turtle?Meeeeeeee!
Amused the humans put Dash back into the tank, and watched as she swaggered confidently up to a very pleased Kiri and nuzzled her. Then the two turtles settled in and watched their two brand-new eggs for quite some time.
It took almost a full week until the eggs hatched, and the humans had gotten no more clear answers than before. Apparently there were some cases where it seemed turtles like Kiri and Dash had procreated withouth the presence of a male, but there was nothing written or researched about it that anyone knew of. Sam and Cory decided it didn't matter much anyway, their little friends seemed quite happy at the prospect of being parents, yes even Dash although the idea had to grow on her first, and that was the important part.
Then the eggs hatched, and out crawled two of the tiniest little turtles either of them had seen, one a fluorescent green though a handful of shades lighter than Dash, and one a fluorescent red, both with the spots on their heads that was characteristic of Dash. They were small and tired from breaking the eggs, and just crawled over to their mother to greet her and Dash before going to sleep.
Everyone was quite enamoured with the two tiny new members of the family. While the babies were still so small they tended to keep on the sand and near their mommy, but as the days went on they got a bit more daring, and started exploring their surroundings a bit, all under daddy Dash's supervising eye.
Sam and Cory tried desperatly to come up with names for the new arrivals, but it was difficult. Several was suggested but discarded as not fitting enough, until eventually Sam decided on Akai and Midori. Cory tried to put her foot down, saying that she would not have wanted to be named 'blondie', so they were not going to name the little turtles red and green either, even if it was in Japanese. Sam however batted her eyes a little, and Cory, quite predictably, caved in. Akai and Midori it was, although they came to call them Aki and Miri as time passed by.
While the babies were so small that they remained on the sand part of the tank, Dash and Kiri had a fairly easy job of looking out for them. Eventually though the little ones got big enough, and curious enough, to take to the water.
At first it was relatively easy for Dash and Kiri to keep up with their children… swimming was new to them, and they took their time to adjust to how to move underwater. It also became more apparent that the little ones had their own personalities by that time. Little Miri was like her mother, a bit shy and timid, while Aki was reckless and always got into trouble. Unfortunately for Dash and Kiri, Miri was very easily persuaded by her sister, and so both little turtlings had a penchant for getting in trouble.
As soon as the two were more comfortable in the water, it also became apparent that both had inherited a lot from their daddy Dash - they didn't just swim, they speeded through the water like racing boats.
They flipped.
They looped.
They discovered how to make the ball thingy squirt high into the air with one of them clinging onto it, Aki getting such altitude that the ball, with her on it, fell on the floor next to the tank.
In short, Dash and Kiri had their flippers full trying to handle their babies. It would be 'daddy, look at me! Wheee!' and Dash would race to catch a wayward child before she got hurt, and Kiri would scold her children and make them promise not to do the dangerous thing again, but it would never last for long. Fortunately enough for Dash and Kiri, hyperactive little turtlings needed lots and lots of sleep, otherwise the two new parents would have been worn out of their shells within the month. It made Dash feel a surprising amount of gratitude and sympathy for her own hatcher, an elderly green turtle who just never had the energy to keep up with her lively young.
All in all though, life was good. Dash and Kiri were quite happy together, and adjusted to having their energetic youngsters in their lives. The turtlings eventually learned enough not to put themselves in too much danger as well, which together with a few safety precautions added by Sam after Aki ended up on the floor next to the tank, made life a little easier for the new parents. In time what exhausted the two adult turtles most was when their neighbour would come visiting and bring her little turtlings for Aki and Miri to play with, as all those youngsters together were quite too much for a turtle to handle.
Then Kiri had a little heart-to-heart with Sam on the subject of babies. Sam, in turn, approached it with Cory at dinner a few nights later, which resulted in the surprised Cory choking on her mouthful of wine, then snorting it out the wrong way.
Dash watched the hacking and wheezing proceedings from her vantage point in the tank with quite a bit of sympathy. She decided she would give Cory some advice next time they had the chance to talk, after all, having turtlings was a pretty big thing for anyone, even humans. Dash also decided she had to ask Kiri if she knew what human eggies looked like, so she sauntered over to where Kiri was dividing up bits of carrot for their own little ones.
Yes, Dash decided as she contentedly snuggled up to her Kiri, it was a pretty good turtle life after all.