The Boy and the Talking Turtle

In a small village beside a green forest, nine-year-old Mika loves to explore. One warm morning by the pond he finds a turtle the size of a dinner plate, with wrinkled moss-green skin, a domed shell ringed in dark marks, and a thin braided cord tied loosely around it. The turtle speaks in a slow, rumbly voice and calls itself Old Shell. It has carried an old village tale for a hundred years, but the ending has slipped away, and without those last words the story is not whole.

Mika decides to help. Carrying the cool, heavy turtle past tall grass and a stream that gurgles over smooth stones, he heads for the house of Grandmother Asha, the village elder who keeps the people's wisdom. Along the way Old Shell shares fragments of the tale about a brave girl who climbed the tallest mountain to catch a fallen star. Written by Ebru Mina TOMURCUK, this gentle story about curiosity, patience and memory can be read on Onlinemasal Com.Tr.