Highly Commended Story - The Turtle’s Dream

“The Turtle’s Dream” by Luminara Nur Fatima Mochdie, BINUS School Serpong, Indonesia, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2018.

Luminara Nur Fatima Mochdie is a Grade 4 student at BINUS School Serpong. She loves to read the Harry Potter series, write fiction stories and draw interesting stuff. Sometimes, she spends her time playing the piano or taking care of her pet bird. She dreams to become a writer and a zoologist. She'd like to write fiction stories about different animals and their behaviour. Luminara was motivated to write from the books she read.

The Turtle’s Dream

In the deep blue sea, there lived a sea turtle. Her name was Lana. She had her family with her and she was happy spending time in the sea. She never went outside apart from the sea and she had only the marine animals as friends. No animals in the forest came near the sea as it was a bit isolated from the forest. But Lana had a habit of day dreaming most of the time. Her biggest dream was to fly up in the sky above the trees and enjoy the coolest wind that touches her body. She knew that her dream will not come true, still she enjoyed her days thinking about that. There was a big hill nearby the sea and Lana could always see the birds flying from the hill.

One day, she decided that she would not swim for her whole life. She wanted to have all kinds of friends including the birds. For the first time, she stepped out of the water and started walking towards the hill. On the way she met a beautiful peacock. The peacock seemed to be a bit upset.

“Can you show me the way to the hill?” asked Lana. The peacock agreed and they became good friends. The turtle even shared her dream to fly.

“What makes you upset dear Peacock?” asked Lana.

“I m looking for beautiful shiny white pearls that will decorate my feathers and make me more pretty,” replied the peacock.

Hearing this, Lana said that there were lots of pearls under the sea and she could bring it. Hearing this, the peacock danced with happiness and promised the turtle that he would take him to the king of birds and he can help the turtle to fly.

After walking for few hours, they reached the nest of the king of birds. It was a huge eyrie that can hold many eagles at the same time. The king was seated on the nest surrounded by many eagles and eaglets. The king was happy to see a turtle and asked him about the reason for being there. The peacock explained everything to the eagle.

The eagle thought for a while and explained the truth that turtles can’t fly and everyone knows about it. Hearing this, the turtle felt sad. She knew this whenever she dreamt of flying but she always had a hope that one day she could fly. Seeing the sad face of the turtle, the eagle decided to help the turtle. Lana was asked to sit on the eagle’s wings and hold it tightly. At first she was scared, slowly she enjoyed the moment when the eagle flew from the nest. Lana was filled with happiness and she enjoyed the wind that flew by. She doesn’t want that moment to stop.

Lana said thank you for making her dream come true. She helped the eagle back by showing the easiest way to the sea so that all animals can use the sea water during summer. The peacock was given lots of pearls from the sea. Whenever she felt like flying, she would go to the eagle. Now all the animals in the forest go to the sea and enjoy a good swim.

Moral: Never give up and keep on chasing your dreams. One day it will come true.