The next morning, the tortoise slipped out of its burrow and felt a bit parched. It headed towards the oasis in a slow gait. It was still a bit groggy from sleep and the early morning chill. Then an event put it back on the tips of its claws, a bark.
It was loud and high pitched. Normally, not something very intimidating. However, despite never hearing it before, the tortoise felt fear from this sound. That was because it belonged to one of its predators. The opportunistic canine, the fox.
As a reaction, it scrunched up as tucked itself inward as much as possible. It couldn't fit its entire body in the shell but it tried. This was a method to make it harder for a larger predator to bite the tortoise. The reason why it didn't try this method of defense, thankfully since it would've been suicide in that situation, was simply due to the fact it initially didn't see the ants as a proper threat.
This lasted a few minutes before the tortoise stuck out its head and looked around. Nothing was in sight. It had a false alarm and wasted some time. That didn't lower the tortoise's caution one bit. The one thing the tortoise had to remember was that it wasn't alone at the oasis. It wasn't some safe haven but a hub of life. Everything wanted it dead, even the plants with their razor sharp leaves.
A vulture circled the sky a few kilometers away. Perhaps waiting for its chance to grab a bite out of the fox's findings. Or maybe some poor creature was on the verge of death there. Either way, it was far away and that was a good thing for the tortoise.
It resumed its journey to the lake even slower than before. Once the sun rose a little bit and things warmed up, the tortoise regained its confidence and sped up a bit. Right before it reached the lake, it decided to take a bit out of a bit of grass on the way. It hesitated for a second as the leaf had a weird lump on it.
This lump jumped into the air and with a fluttering noise, it flew a short distance away. The leaf it left behind had a few holes on it, bite marks from the lump. This lump was from a grasshopper, a fairly common insect that used camouflage as a defense against predators. It could fly and was a herbivore. They were a pest that would kill plants if left alone. If they were bigger, the tortoise might consider them a rival for its food source.
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It ate the remaining leaf and then arrived at the lake. There it wetted its mouth with the brown mixture while keeping its eye out. Its eyes lied everywhere except the water. Unexpectedly, something jumped out of the water a meter away, shocking the tortoise. A brown, horned creature introduced itself to dry land for the first time before hopping inland. A toad.
Toads were similar to tortoises except they were amphibians. They had a cousin, frogs, that stayed in the water, while they rejected swimming once they grew legs and could leave. This one was covered in intimidating spikes to deter possible predators. Like the tortoise days ago, it started its life on land afresh, introduced to all its dangers.
Just when it was about to leave to get back to its burrow to protect itself from the afternoon wave, it spotted something unusual by the water. A reflection of itself but the water was too murky to reflect. Not a reflection, but another tortoise. One of its brethren that decided to come this way. Both of them had found their way to this oasis and were slowly adapting to life and its dangers.
They stared at each other for a bit, assessing each other. Before leaving and going their separate ways. Tortoises were fiercely territorial. If not for the body of water between them, family or not, they may have started a fight. One side belonged to the protagonist while the other side belonged to its sibling. The oasis was split and tensions were high. Neither side was willing to risk direct conflict at the moment.
With their small bodies, even the smallest injury could result in an early demise. Not even mentioning if they were adults. Even then, unless it was mating season, they might avoid a confrontation unless one side entered the other's territory. Lines were made and they wouldn't be crossed for now.
With the end of that confrontation, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful. The tortoise went back to its burrow and felt the urge to dig. With the burrow facing the wrong direction and being somewhat deep, the tortoise made the smart decision to just make a new burrow a meter or two away. And when night came, the tortoise had began making its original burrow deeper.
Outside the burrow, the half moon hung low in the sky, watching over everything. The oasis was now silent but would be teeming with life the next day. This oasis did not revolve around the tortoise but rather the tortoise and many other organisms revolved around it.