“What? Won’t we get stuck on the island then?” There was no danger of drowning even if we went underwater, of course, but I and my apprentices wouldn’t be able to sail home.

“She’s only diving for a few minutes or hours,” said Dawn. “When she dives for real and swims underwater for longer than that, we always get plenty of warning.”

“Oh.” It seems the turtle was a very thoughtful guardian.

“Teacher, there’s Lari.” Kharli pointed at a group of young men, all dressed in sarongs and flower necklaces.

To my surprise, Lari was dressed like the locals. One could easily pick him out from among the others because he was white as snow while everyone else was tanned. He waved at us then walked over and handed us a spear each. “Teacher, these are the spears they use for fishing! I thought they were going to bring me out on a boat to spear fish, but they don’t fish outside much. The fishponds they tend are enough to feed everyone on the island. We just speared fish in a barrel.”

“I see. Looks like you had fun.” I guessed that what they did was this world’s version of shooting fish in a barrel.

He used a spear to mime the motion of spearing fish while Kharli, Mo, and I tucked the spears into our inventories for safekeeping.

“There! At the horizon!” said Dusk.

My mouth fell open when I saw the waterline at the horizon suddenly rise until, in moments, the entire sky was full of blue water. Everyone clapped or hooted.

I put a hand on my chest because my heart had almost leaped out of my body. “Amazing.”

Mo suddenly bent over and put her hands over her mouth, but it was in vain as she couldn’t stop herself from vomiting.

Kharli held her hair away from her face and I rubbed her back sympathetically. I did feel a sort of jolt in my stomach and perhaps a momentary sense of vertigo when the turtle dived, but Mo seemed to be more sensitive.

“Ugh. I’m… okay now.” Mo straightened herself slowly, her face pale. “I just felt a little queasy.”

“It’s better now, yes?” Dusk patted her on the shoulder. “It only feels like that the first few seconds of the dive.”

The ladies escorted us to a small, round table that had been set up under a large scholar tree. We sat down and a bevy of beauties, male and female, served us drinks. We refused all the alcoholic beverages and stuck to iced water and fruit juices. I was told they had a special cave behind a waterfall that produced ice all year round which had been enchanted by the Sage of the One Hundred and Eight Paths.

“The Sage was very fond of iced peach juice.” Day smiled as she poured more of her special tropical fruit punch. It had ice with slices of peaches in it.

“It’s so sweet and refreshing!” said Lari.

He had gotten over his previous shyness and was no longer blushing or looking at the ground.

“Miss, try these cookies, I made them myself.” A handsome young man handed me a small, leaf-wrapped package.

“Thank you.” I opened it and popped the cookies in my mouth. “Yummy!”

Dusk gently poked my side with her elbow. “This is my cousin Vasa. Isn’t he handsome?”

Vasa was around the same age as me and had long, silky black hair down to his waist. His eyes were a lovely shade of brown, and I had to admit he was quite a looker.

Prince Baiyu had way better abs and pecs though. I wondered how he would look dressed only in a knee-length sarong.

Mmmm.

Perhaps Dusk mistook my expression because she grinned and poked me with her elbow. “He’s single.”

“Er.” I wasn’t sure how to say it delicately, so I could only be blunt. “I have someone…”

“You do?” Dusk exchanged a look with her cousin who shook his head. “Too bad.”

“Teacher, shall I go get food for us?” Lari was looking at the food tables longingly.

All around us were islanders talking animatedly with each other. The children were being looked after by their parents, but the rest of the people were in large same-age groups, with the chief at the biggest table with the oldest people. The teenagers occasionally darted here and there to serve drinks and snacks to their elders.

“No, it looks like the main event hasn’t started yet,” I said.

“Are you feeling more relaxed now?” Day asked Mo. When my apprentice nodded, Day said, “I’ll show you something good!”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She and the other ladies got up and gestured for us to follow her. Vasa followed behind us.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“You’ll see,” said Day.

“You’ll love it,” said Dawn.

Dusk just smiled mysteriously.

We walked away from the lights of the party area. Above us was blue water, softly lit by some magical device, no doubt. The air was cooler now that the hot sun was no longer shining down on the island. We walked for quite some time until we reached the edge of the bay where a wall of water extended up into the sky.

“We’re surrounded by a dome of water. The turtle’s protection also extends all around us. Like so.” Day walked into the water.

I stumbled back in shock, and Kharli and Mo screamed when Day’s body was sucked in with a loud squelch. Our alarm was short-lived, however, as her head and shoulders immediately reappeared, horizontally suspended around waist-high. She was facing downwards and seemed unharmed though the rest of her was still inside the wall of water.

“What the heck?!” I knelt and grabbed her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

Day laughed. “I’m swimming! It’s fun. You should try it.”

Vasa gently nudged me aside and put his hands on Day’s shoulders. He slowly pulled her out of the water, and I was amazed to see that she emerged from it dry, with not a drop of water on her body.

Day smoothed her hair back down. “The turtle puts our heads back out when we go into the water. Children love to play this game.”

“Try it,” said Dusk.

“I will!” said Lari.

Before I could stop him, he ran into the wall of water. In a thrice, his head appeared outside of the water, perfectly dry.

“What does it feel like?” Mo bent down and pinched his cheek.

“The water feels great.” Lari’s tone of voice was blissful and dreamy.

“Let’s draw a turtle on his face.” Kharli took a paintbrush out of her inventory.

Lari gave them both a smug look. “If you do that then I’ll draw a turtle on your face when you go swimming, too.”

Kharli hesitated. While she was dithering about whether to do it or not, Lari pulled half his torso and his arms out of the water and made freestyle swimming motions which looked weird since only part of his body was underwater.

“It looks fun! I’ll do it.” I hastily put on swimming shorts under my skirt and dove right into the water.

There was one moment of cold wetness as my body hit the water, and then it was as though a giant hand picked me up and set me down with my head out of the water.

“It’s… it’s a strange feeling.” I let my body float as I analyzed the experience. The water was clearly surrounding my body, and I was floating in it, yet somehow I was dry. The best I could figure was that there was a thin aura or force field around me. I kicked my legs and moved my arms in a breaststroke which made half my torso emerge from the water. I was swimming yet not swimming. “Weird. Weird but good!”

Kharli and Mo took that as permission and dove right in.

“Woohoo!” Mo yelled as she jumped into the water.

“Woohoo!” Kharli echoed her and shoved one arm in.

“Hey, why aren’t you going in?” asked Lari.

“I don’t feel like swimming. Also, someone needs to watch over you guys,” said Kharli.

“Oh no, we can’t have that,” said Day.

Kharli turned to her and said, “What do you me-”

Her words were cut off when Dusk shoved her in. It happened too fast for her to react, and moments later her head reappeared out of the water.

“This is fun!” I did a freestyle swimming motion. There was a bit of a splash when my arms emerged from the water, and my whole body moved back and forth by two feet when I tried to swim.

“Strange… I don’t think I like it.” Lari pulled his arms out of the water. He turned his head towards Vasa and said, “Can you please pull me out?”

Vasa got Lari out of the water.

“Teacher, I’ll go back to the party!” Lari waved goodbye and left when I nodded.

“I love this, I’ll be swimming here for a while, is that okay?” I asked the others.

“Enjoy yourself as much as you like,” said Day.

Vasa, Dawn, Day, and Dusk sat down on the ground to watch over us.

I tossed my head to see how my hair moved when it was half in the water. “I will! This is a new and unique experience.”

Kharli and Mo loved it, too.

“I’m swimming underwater on a legendary island on the back of a turtle!” said Mo.

“Look, I can do a somersault!” Kharli tucked her head down and then spun her body in a full circle before emerging with a triumphant smile.

Mo and I copied her and we all attempted several other acrobatic maneuvers like rolls and flips, not always successfully. They were quite impressed when I showed them how to do a dolphin kick. We got tired after about an hour, and after that, I spent a long time with my body fully relaxed and floating in the water. I almost fell asleep.

“This is super nice. Thank you,” I said when we had all had enough.

They helped us out of the water and we walked back to where the feast was being held.

Vasa smiled, showing pearly white teeth, and gallantly offered me his arm. Behind us, I could hear everyone else giggling, and I didn’t want to embarrass him by refusing, so we walked together with my hand in his arm.

“Look up,” he said.

I tilted my head up to gaze at the dome of luminous water.

“It’s not always visible, but we are always surrounded by the Turtle’s protection. Unlike the outside world, there is no war, famine, or plague here. I think you should come and live with us.” He turned back to speak to my apprentices saying, “All of you.”

Kharli and Mo simply looked at me, waiting for me to reply.

“This island is like a paradise. If this had been last year, when I was alone, I would’ve jumped at the chance to live here. But now…” I waved my hand out, a gesture that encompassed everything in the world. “I would never leave my farm.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Our people can leave and return, you know. My cousin returned last year. Do you know what he told me when I asked him why he came back after only a month outside?”

“Was it the lack of good, fresh fish for cheap?”

He laughed. “No. He said he was in this small hunting village and one of the hunters broke his leg. My cousin was shocked when no one in the village except for his wife tended to him.”

“What do you mean? Isn’t that normal?”

Vasa frowned down at me. “Here, if you break a leg, everyone helps. His wife would hardly need to lift a finger since everyone would help with cooking, cleaning, fetching water, and caring for the sick. That’s how it should be.”

Dawn said, “I heard about that. In the outside world, the only people who take care of each other are family and close friends, not the entire town.”

“Gosh.” This information was almost enough to give me second thoughts, but I really couldn’t leave my farm, my household, and my boyfriend.

We were mostly silent during the rest of the walk until another bell started tolling.

“She’s going back up!” said Dusk.

It was fast. One moment we were under a dome of water, a few seconds later, we felt a slight lurching movement and then there was nothing but sky above us. Another bell tolled.

“That’s the signal to prepare for another dive,” said Day.