Wayambeh the Turtle

Wayambeh the Turtle

Long ago, when animals in old tales still walked, talked, and lived in communities, Oolah the lizard went out onto the plain to gather edible roots.

With her were her three children.

The day was warm. The children were helping their mother, running around the bushes, and crouching down to look at a beetle or a small hole in the ground. Oolah was working quietly, when suddenly she heard a rustling behind a large bush.

She straightened up.

"Who's there?"

Wayambeh came out from behind the bush.

He had been watching Oolah for a long time and decided that she should go and live in his camp. But instead of coming openly, talking, and hearing her answer, Wayambeh did something completely different.

"Come with me," he said. "You will live in our camp. And take the children."

Oolah looked at him in surprise.

“I didn’t agree to go anywhere with you.”

“I’ve already decided,” Wayambeh replied stubbornly.

“But you can’t decide for me.”

Wayambeh refused to listen. He kept insisting and hurrying her, as though his wishes mattered more than hers. The children pressed close to their mother.

Oolah didn’t want to argue in front of them. So she said,

“All right. I’ll go to your camp, but we’ll speak to everyone there. Then we’ll see whether your people truly think this is right.”

Wayambeh was sure that everyone would side with him.

But when they arrived, it wasn’t quite what he expected.

The elders of his community saw Oolah and the children and immediately asked,

“Wayambeh, did she choose to come here herself?”

Wayambeh hesitated.

“Not really.”

“Did you ask her family? Did you ask her?”

“I thought things would be fine later.”

One of the elders shook his head.

“Something doesn’t become right just because it suits you. Oolah has the right to choose where she wants to be.”

Another elder woman said,

“If her family comes for her, we won’t quarrel with them over your stubbornness. You must put right what you have done.”

Wayambeh frowned. He did not like hearing such words.

“But I wanted her to stay!”

“You can want many things,” they answered him. “But you cannot turn another person into a thing to be taken without permission.”

Meanwhile, Oolah sat down with her children at the edge of the camp and waited.

Soon her relatives appeared on the plain. They had been looking for Oolah ever since they noticed that she had not returned home. Seeing her, they quickly approached.

“Oolah! Children! Are you all right?”

“We’re fine,” she replied. “We’re going home now.”

But Wayambeh stood in front of them.

“No! I will not allow it!”

Even his own people were indignant at this.

“Enough, Wayambeh. She has said she wants to leave. Step aside.”

Wayambeh had spent so long convincing himself he was right that he no longer knew how to back down and admit his mistake.

He scrambled, grabbed two large shields and covered himself with them: one in front, the other behind.

“Stay back!” he shouted.

No one was going to attack him.

“We don’t want to fight,” one of Oolah’s relatives said. “Just let her pass.”

“Get out of the way,” Oolah added. “And everything will end peacefully.”

But Wayambeh backed up, hiding between two shields.

A step back.

Another step.

And another.

He was so focused on the people ahead that he completely forgot to look where he was going.

“Wayambeh, there’s a stream behind you!” someone shouted.

But it was too late.

Splash!

Wayambeh and his two shields splashed into the water.

Everyone on the shore froze.

A few moments passed.

“Wayambeh?” they called out to him.

Ripples spread across the water.

Then a strange creature slowly emerged from the depths.

It was short, had four short legs, a small head, and a hard, rounded shell on its back.

“Look!” Oolah’s children whispered.

The creature swam closer. Someone reached out, but it quickly pulled its head and legs under its shell.

The two shields Wayambeh had used to shut everyone out seemed to have become one solid shell around him.

“It’s Wayambeh,” one of the elders said quietly.

Oolah looked at the turtle in the water and did not laugh, although it was all very strange.

“Maybe now he will have time to think,” she said.

The turtle stuck out its head, looked at the people, and hid again.

“When you are afraid, you can defend yourself,” Oolah told her children. “But you cannot defend your stubbornness as if it were more important than the will of others.”

The children nodded.

They said goodbye to Wayambeh’s community and went home with their relatives.

But the turtle remained in the stream.

He learned to swim well, walk slowly along the bank, and draw his head and feet beneath his hard shell whenever danger came. They say the turtles living in those waters are his descendants.

Whenever a turtle freezes and withdraws into its sturdy home, the old tale offers a reminder: sometimes we need to stop, put our stubbornness aside, and think carefully before deciding for someone else.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨