Travelling-Turtle not named Tyler (Part 2)

We arrived in the late afternoon. I was the first to exit the stagecoach, my travelling partners sent me off with a collective sigh of relief. They were probably planning their turtle-tax talk… I walked by the horses and thanked them for their service. They were surprised that I could speak their language, this in turn left me surprised.

I thought that every turtle that left the village should have received the same education. Another question added to my list. Grandma is gonna have a blast!

Turtle Village is something else. Due to the nature of our architecture (all our private housing buildings are shaped like oversized shells, the biggest houses have two stories with most being ground floor only), the city (I guess it's more accurate to call Turtle Village a metropolis) takes up a lot of space.

Our society is split in two parts: The turtles and the tortoises.

While both have the same rights within the society, there are certain tendencies. A turtle is more likely to receive a house in close proximity to water (either near the beach, Turtle Village is directly adjacent to the sea and features one of the main ports on the continent, or next to one of the rivers), while tortoises tend to get priority on homes close to the forests and meadows.

Due to natural constraints, our navy and marine researchers are made up of turtles. While tortoises may apply to become researchers, the navy is strictly turtle only. This gets applied to army and geological researchers in reverse, making our army tortoise only.

I case you couldn't figure it out from the things I ate, I actually am a tortoise. Why would I refer to myself as turtle then? Well, most of the animal species have their own languages and dialects. Very few of them differentiate between turtles and tortoises, using turtle in both cases. If those contemptuous carrots feel the need to distinguish, then they usually do that through either calling us land- or sea/swimming (I also heard water once)-turtles.

Those prejudiced cats are the main offenders, too high and mighty to learn the difference.

After entering the shade of a mighty walnut tree in front of the temporary city entrance control point to queue up, I busied myself with the tedious task of admiring the scenery.

Turtle Village was originally founded between two river estuaries in an area where the coastline turns from rocky cliffs into a wide and flat beach. The southernmost river flows inside a gorge, its estuary forming a natural harbour. Due to its well-chosen location and coupled with a non-trivial immigration pull for turtlekind, Turtle Village soon came to outgrow its natural confines and started spreading beyond the streams.

The city itself is now split into three parts, each divided by the rivers, which were reinforced into full blown ports long ago: The upper city, the elevated city and the lower city.

While most of the space is used for shell-houses, this is especially true for the upper city. Outside of a market, some wells, clinics and an old city gate which has long since been repurposed into some kind of skater-park, the upper city only houses one notable building: The lighthouse.

It's placed on the highest cliff right next to the sea and if you've never been there, then it's worth a visit. The view is magnificent, overlooking both the sea and the city. It also is the central hub for all the seagulls in turtle employment (it's more of a symbiosis in actuality), which means that in case you understand seagull, you can even listen to them constantly relaying ship coordinates!

If you cross one of the dozens of bridges leading north-east, you'll then enter the elevated city. This area is located a slope on the north-eastern side of the southern river. It houses both shipyards and drydocks, most of the commercial and industrial zones and of course: plenty of houses.

The characteristic features of this part of the city are the 'floating roads'. These roads run parallel to both rivers and neither rise nor fall, meaning they stay on one elevation only and lead to the formation of inhabited plateaus. This grants the elevated city the look of one of those terraces used for farming by ancient civilizations.

The northern river separates the lower city from the elevated city, with the former being the northernmost part of Turtle Village (surprise!). The lower city houses research complexes and most of the city management: Government buildings, the judiciary and the mayoral office. If you would then head further north, you would arrive on the beach. In case you headed east, you would reach the vast farmlands that were cultivated in order to feed all the hungry inhabitants.

Yes, Turtle Village is some kind of self-governed subsidiary. There are side effects as a result of this: Due to me living outside of Turtle Village, the local government has bestowed me a supplementary citizenship. The implications of this are rather simple. Legally speaking, I'm a citizen of Faculty country. Due to the supplementary citizenship, I am, moreover, considered a legal citizen of Turtle Village, granted I follow the law (mainly turtle-tax for me, most of the additional laws are meant for my female counterparts). I have freedom of movement (in theory) and I'm allowed to acquire and own land in both countries. There are more subsidiaries like this, I've heard of both dogs and toads inhabiting a city of their own.

All in all, Turtle Village is a bustling city that's beautiful to look at. Especially in the afternoon sun. Now thoroughly exhausted from the taxing task of taking in the entire view, I arrived at the admission post (was rather fast, turtles are efficient bureaucrats) and got my room assigned in exchange for confirming my identity and paying my "retirement share".

I was fairly tired at this point, so I picked one of the many stalls offering free food for turtles at random and had dinner. Turtle Village lettuce just hits different. After enjoying my meal and strolling through the city for about two hours, I searched for my 'hotel' and called it a night. After confirming that there were no mind-reading turtles taking me into custody, I went to sleep. The next day would be very long.