When Jun was six years old, he asked his mother Elys where Che’el came from. She wrapped her arms around him and began her tale. “Long ago, before Che’el or any of the islands existed, God came down to visit Earth. The first animals he saw were some tiny baby sea turtles, and so he decided to take on the form of a baby sea turtle so he could join them. God and the sea turtles swam together through shallows and depths, through sea caves and kelp forests, and through the most beautiful coral reefs God had ever seen. They played, ate, and explored, and life with them was wonderful. God decided to stay as a sea turtle with them that night, and the next day, and the day after that. Years went by, and God continued to stay with those sea turtles.
“Then one day, the sea turtles told God that it was time for them to return to where they were born so they could find a mate and lay eggs. God was upset and wondered who he would play with if these sea turtles left him! He begged them to stay. But then he realized that after years of playing and eating and exploring, those baby sea turtles had grown from this big,” Elys said as she lifted up Jun’s hand and pointed to the palm, “to this big,” she said, holding her arms as far apart as she could. “They had finished growing and they weren’t babies anymore.
“In his despair, God tried to use his power to make his sea turtle friends stay as babies forever so they never had to leave him and their old lifestyle. But God’s power didn’t always work out how he wanted it to. The sea turtles did regain their appetite and did forget all about laying eggs, but they didn’t get smaller like God expected. In fact, when they returned to their lifestyle of playing, eating, and exploring, they continued to grow and grow and grow, just like they had as baby sea turtles. Soon, they were bigger than any other animal in the whole world. God felt so scared about what he had done that he left Earth right away and went back in the sky, deciding never to mess with nature again.”
Jun thought for a second before responding. “So Che’el was one of those turtles?”
Before Elys could respond, Alcar, who had been snoozing in the corner, broke in, “Yes, our perfect Che’el was touched by God, unlike all those other islands that were born from eggs.”
Elys shot him a dirty look. “Che’el was born from an egg like all of the other islands that are around now, but I’m sure your father would love to share his own explanation for where the very first ones came from.”
“So how long will it be until Che’el is fully grown up?” Jun asked, “and how big will Che’el get?”
“Well, according to the records kept on Che’el, people have lived on it for…” Elys paused for a quick mental calculation, “247 years. Che’el could have been born 100 or 1000 years before it first came to the Archipelago for all we know, but based on how big other islands have become, Che’el could continue to grow for 1000 more years or more.”
Since that day, every year on his day of birth, Jun walked from one end of Che’el to another, counting how many steps it would take. Each year, he scratched the number into a piece of keratin which he had found peeling from Che’el’s shell. After a few years, he came to his mom with his findings. “Mom, Che’el is shrinking!”
She laughed and ruffled his hair. “And why do you believe that?”
Jun pulled out his keratin plate and showed the descending number of steps from 2347 to 2268 to 2180. Elys put on a playfully thoughtful look, then pulled Jun closer to her. “Look how tall you’ve become, you’re almost as tall as I am!”
“But what about what I said about Che’el?”
“Don’t worry, I’m getting there! So last year when you were 7 years old, how tall were you compared to me?”
Jun thought for a second. “I think I was only around as tall as your shoulder?”
“And now, you’re up to my ear! So did you grow or did I shrink?”
June hugged her and grinned. “Maybe both!”
Elys laughed again and hugged him back. “Hopefully not both! So next time you measure something, make sure you use something that stays the same size. Che’el definitely isn’t shrinking, but it can’t grow fast enough to keep up with you and your legs!“
With each passing day, Jun’s activities hardly strayed from his routine, but his curiosity for Che’el grew ever greater. He could hardly abandon his responsibilities gathering and helping sell at the market, but in the afternoon, Jun found himself slipping away from games to spend time in thought. He’d climb down from the edge of Che’el’s shell and sit upon one of Che’el’s great limbs, seeing it stretch forward for hundreds of feet. The giant flippers moved slow enough as to be almost imperceptible, but with each stroke, they propelled Che’el gradually through the water. Other days, Jun climbed onto Che’el’s head and sat, hoping that being physically closer to its thoughts would bring him closer to understanding them.
One day as Jun sat on Che’el’s head and watched the sun approach the horizon, he turned around to see Lira climbing up to join him. She sat down and elbowed him in the ribs. “Finally found you, is this where you’ve been disappearing to all these days?”
“Most days,” Jun replied, “I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.”
Lira smirked. “What’s all happening in your life to give you so much to think about?”
Jun sighed. “It’s not just stuff about my life, it’s about all of us and our life here on Che’el.”
Lira cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, and what about it?”
Jun turned to her, then looked back towards the setting sun. “When I gather, I love watching and learning about all of the sea creatures I can find. I always have. But lately, it’s just really hit me that our island is just a sea creature too, and I just can’t stop wishing I knew more about it.”
“I mean, we’ve all been through that when we first realized what Che’el was,” Lira said, “but what’s making you so mopey again now?”
I’ve just been thinking about my parents and Jora and,” Jun paused, “do you think Che’el has a family too?”
Lira raised her eyebrow further than before. “Do even regular turtles have families? What are you going on about?”
Jun took a second to organize his thoughts. “Maybe not, but every animal has its own way that it eats, sleeps, and makes baby animals. We never see Che’el do any of that. We don’t even know if Che’el has a family or how it might have its own kids. What if it tried to, and it did something that hurt all of us by accident?”
“All we’ve ever seen Che’el do is swim on. All our parents have ever seen Che’el do is swim on. Why would you worry about something like that?”
“Well that’s just one thing. Think about when we forage. Most everything we catch are animals which depend on Che’el to survive, whether they’re crabs that live on the coral which grows on Che’el or lampreys that latch onto Che’el’s skin to feed directly.” Jun said, caressing the rocky skin they sat upon. “Do you think Che’el understands that the lampreys hurt it, but the crabs don’t?”
“No more than I can tell the difference between the flies that bite and the flies that don’t.” Lira took the opportunity to shoo away some flies she just seemed to notice.
“Well, do you think we’re crabs or lampreys?”
Lira laughed nervously, waiting in vain for Jun’s serious composure to break. “If I had to pick one, I’d definitely say crabs. We pick off the lampreys, so if anything, we’re even better than-”
Jun cut her off. “What about when we dig into Che’el’s shell to create freshwater ponds, or to harvest keratin for tools. Isn’t that like what the lampreys do?”
“But it’s different! The keratin comes off anyways, and we’re not digging into Che’el’s skin, just the outer layer of its shell.”
“Maybe Che’el sees us as crabs now, but what if we did something to change that? If Che’el ever wanted to, it could dive into the ocean and wipe us all out as easily as we swat a fly, biting or not. If Che’el went to lay eggs or even just grew old and died, what would we do?”
Seeing Jun’s agitation, Lira elbowed him again, but more gently than before. “You can worry all you want, but what can we do about it?” She turned to gaze out towards the horizon as well. “This is our home. Che’el is our home, and we have nothing else. All we can do is try our best to live, right?”
“I guess so,” Jun said. They continued to sit and stare out at the open sea as the sun melted into the waves. All Jun could do is try his best to forage and survive like his father and probably like Alcar’s father before him. But Jun wanted to do more.
In the haze of twilight, Jun suddenly noticed a thin dark line appear far in the distance. He turned to tell Lira, but it was clear she had noticed as well. Jun guessed it was another island; Che’el had passed within viewing distance of other islands several times that Jun remembered, but never near enough for the people of Che’el to interact with the people of the other islands.
As they continued to drift towards the mass, it appeared to rise up and out of the sea, taller and more pointed than any island could be. Jun’s suspicions grew, and he turned to scramble back onto the shell, trailing after Lira. They came up to a group of villagers, adults and children, all looking to the horizon. Jun noticed a glint of excitement in the eyes of the adults, but the other children seemed as confused as he felt. Lira’s father Bors took her hand as he grinned then announced, “We’re headed for the Archipelago!”