"They gone fishin," says the tortoise.

He blinks and stares at the animal. "What?"

The tortoise pokes its head out further from under its shell. "Fishin! The dock master and his guys. Gone for the afternoon."

He watches the tortoise and wonders what to do now. After using the tourist glasses to spot the floating wooden duck out at sea, he'd decided to explore the beach further on, away from the direction of the cliffs that disappeared into the sky. After a few turns he'd come across this small dock with a shack, jutting out from some rocks. He'd seen this great tortoise basking in the sun near the entrance to the shack, but had paid it no mind. Until now.

"You got money?" the tortoise asks. "There's a fee for passage."

He isn't sure if the tortoise means passage across the sea or to keep walking here. "I don't have any money."

The tortoise grunts knowingly. "That figures. Well you can work it off if you want. But you'll have to talk it over with The Bowl."

"The Bowl?"

"Yeah, the Bowl!" The tortoise peers at him incredulously. "Say, mister… Where you trying to get to anyways?"

Without thinking he answers. "I'm trying to find my wife."

---

Twelfth chapter in an ongoing serial based on @mariannewest's daily #freewrite writing prompts. Here are the previous chapters listed below:

Chapter One>Chapter Two

Chapter Three>Chapter Four

Chapter Five>Chapter Six

Chapter Seven>Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine>Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

And here is Chapter Thirteen


Written in five minutes from the writing prompt, "bowl" as part of the #freewrite exercise. Image is also by me. You can view the prompt here and check out the other entries; they'll... BOWL you over! BWAHAHAHAHA! Thanks to @mariannewest for creating and running this daily serving of story soup.

ANNOUNCEMENT

If you've enjoy my freewrite and feel like reading something a little longer, I've recently posted a story of mine called "Winds of the Earth"... This was originally the first chapter to a novel I was going to write, but it never got off the ground. So I've decided to present it as a stand alone story, and would greatly appreciate any feedback. Does it hold up as a story on it's own? Or should I continue with it as a full length novel?